SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft has returned to Earth, caught midair by giant mechanical arms where its journey began 22 hours earlier.
The spaceship emerged from a cloudy sky on Saturday, descending slowly over Starbase before slipping smoothly between mechanical “chopstick arms” above Launch Pad 2 in Texas – the first-ever capture of a Starship flying back from space.
Soon afterwards, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk congratulated his “incredible team”.
SpaceX officials said Saturday’s catch demonstrates Starship’s full reusability, crucial for rapid, low-cost recycling.
However, with the first-stage booster exploding shortly after Friday’s liftoff from Texas, the company fell short of its desired double catch.
Separating neatly from its booster before things went awry, the upper-stage spacecraft soared into orbit and released 26 advanced Starlink satellites.
SpaceX’s Kate Tice said its engines stopped firing too soon on the way back down. The booster’s guidance system sensed it was not in the right position and automatically initiated the watery detour and self-destruction. Engineers are still investigating the cause.
Although Friday’s booster recovery failed, the company had already made three previous booster catches, validating the technique.
NASA, which is paying billions of dollars for Starship to land Artemis astronauts on the Moon later this decade, welcomed the achievement.
“It was almost magic,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on X.
Starship completed 14 laps around the Earth, 265km (165 miles), outshining the previous mission’s one to two laps.
SpaceX reported that everything on the spacecraft, including its vital heat shield, appeared to work well.
It was SpaceX’s 15th flight of a full-scale Starship since 2023 and its only second trip to orbit.
Starship, a 124-metre (407ft) behemoth, is the world’s largest and most powerful rocket, intended for Moon and Mars travel.
SpaceX expects to begin launching Starships from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center within the next few months.
