Starship IFT-5 successful catch?

[Lee Jay]

What do you think will happen with the IFT-5 booster catch attempt?

[Bob Shaw]

I don’t think the booster will perform well enough to allow the attempt.

[tyrred]

I think parts of the booster will be caught.

[sdsds]

I'm betting they're going to be super-cautious and thus the most likely outcome will be, "Didn't make it back to the launch site, crashed somewhere else." That's assuming 'crash' includes a soft landing out in the Gulf.

[Lee Jay]

I'm betting they're going to be super-cautious and thus the most likely outcome will be, "Didn't make it back to the launch site, crashed somewhere else." That's assuming 'crash' includes a soft landing out in the Gulf.

Yeah, I should have specified that a soft landing somewhere else counts as a crash since the booster will be destroyed as a result.

[dglow]

I'm betting they're going to be super-cautious and thus the most likely outcome will be, "Didn't make it back to the launch site, crashed somewhere else." That's assuming 'crash' includes a soft landing out in the Gulf.

Yeah, I should have specified that a soft landing somewhere else counts as a crash since the booster will be destroyed as a result.

I believe you can edit the poll questions.

[StraumliBlight]

Is a poll going to be created for landing bingo?

[joek]

Voted for "did not make it back" as think they will be extremely conservative with this one.

[AmigaClone]

I imagine that there is a large chance SpaceX will abort the catch attempt ITF-5 prior to stage separation (This includes prior to launch.)

I didn't see my personal guess of what might happen if there actually was a catch attempt as part of IFT-5. That would be a partial successful attempt with moderate to severe damage to both the booster and the ground infrastructure.

[IRobot]

I think the open chopsticks will not be fast enough, and have too much inertia.
I could imagine they evolve into a closed grapple. This could solve the inertia problem and allow them to move much faster

[Rossco]

I went with "Partially successful, substantial damage to booster, minimal damage to ground infrastructure"

I think they'll go for it - SX don't seem too concerned with damaging stuff - including the launch site - and they do have the 2nd tower progressing well, so probably could rob parts from that if Tower 1 needs fixing quicklyish
I see them catching the booster but it being too badly damaged/crushed to fly again

[spacenut]

I think enough fuel will have to be left for the booster to hoover a few extra seconds at the pad for the chopsticks to grab it.  A little slower than a F9 landing. 

[sstli2]

I suspect engine issues will arise that prevent a precise enough propulsive landing as would be required

[ZachS09]

I’m highly optimistic of the catch being done with no problem. Hence why I voted “fully successful”.

[Jeff Lerner]

I voted Mostly a failure, substantial damage to both booster and ground infrastructure…as I said in another forum post, just because something can be done, doesn’t mean it should be done.

Legs work…chopsticks?..nah….

[gaballard]

Very torn between “doesn’t make it back” and “partially successful, booster is heavily damaged”. It really comes down to how the Raptors perform after staging. If they can get the booster there, I think they’ll manage a catch, but my gut says it’ll end in a fireball.

Going to be some excellent viewing no matter what happens!

[Barley]

Successful is learns enough to do better next time.  Does not matter how many pieces the test articles end up in.