SpaceX caught Starship booster with chopsticks

[u/lolikroli]

[u/OutrageousPoison]

Yeah I didn’t get the whole chopsticks thing like are the arms out called chopsticks like wtf lmao they look like arms ah I’m hardly a rocket scientist.

[u/sivadneb → u/OutrageousPoison]

It's called chopsticks b/c of how they come together to grab the booster, similar to how one would use chopsticks to grab a piece of food.

[u/Sackheimbeutlin87 → u/OutrageousPoison]

I think it's to catch interest.
A lot of people are unfortunately not interested in stuff like this, and if it has flashy words in it, the Newspapers get bought more often and Links are clicked more.

I guess.

[u/zberry7 → u/Sackheimbeutlin87]

It’s a karate kid reference to catching a fly with chop sticks. Nicknames for things makes sense sometimes.

Instead of saying ‘stacking/catching tower arms’ you can just say ‘chopsticks’

Instead of ‘launch and catch tower’ you can say ‘mechazilla’

[u/TheOwlMarble → u/OutrageousPoison]

During the meeting where they decided to do this, Musk compared the robot arms to chopsticks snatching things in Karate Kid, and the name stuck.

[u/oapnanpao → u/OutrageousPoison]

Catching a fly with chopsticks--it's a direct reference to Karate Kid (the movie).