Concept study · v2 · November 2026
Catch the rocket.
Keep the magnets on the ground.
MagCatch is a proposed way to recover Starship-class rockets. A magnetic carriage on a tower track speeds up to match the descending vehicle, closes its arms at almost zero relative speed, then brakes both to a stop, sending the energy back into ground storage.
Real-time animation of the baseline design: capture at 30 m/s, 1 g braking, about 10 seconds from carriage launch to a safed vehicle.
added to the vehicle: small latch inserts on hardpoints it already has (estimate)
less landing propellant per landing, which on an upper stage is roughly payload (estimate)
relative speed when the arms close: the catch shock is designed out
Five steps, about ten seconds
Everything heavy (magnets, power electronics, energy storage, heat sinks) stays in the tower. The rocket brings only its existing catch hardpoints.
Approach
The landing burn trims descent to a steady 30 m/s, vertical and alongside the track.
Carriage launch
A linear motor drives the carriage down at 2 g until it is moving at the rocket's speed.
Match & capture
With relative speed near zero, the arms close on the hardpoints and the engines shut down.
Regen braking
1 g net deceleration over ~46 m. Energy flows back to a ground storage buffer.
Safed & reset
Latched in place, the vehicle rides the carriage to the launch mount for its next flight.
Why it is built this way
MagCatch began as an onboard superconducting design. Engineering review moved every heavy and risky part off the rocket.
Ground-heavy
Every kilogram on the rocket costs payload. In the tower, mass, power and cooling are almost free.
Matched-speed contact
The carriage meets the vehicle instead of the vehicle hitting the catch, so contact happens without a shock.
Dissipative braking
Regenerative motors and eddy-current brakes absorb energy instead of storing it like a spring, so there is no rebound.
Passive failsafe
Permanent-magnet eddy brakes stop the carriage with no power, no software and no operator, the same principle drop-tower rides use.
The full technical case is in the deck
20 slides: architecture, sizing, power, control, failure modes, assumptions and a validation roadmap.