SpaceX achieved a historic milestone on Sunday by successfully “catching” the first-stage booster of its Starship megarocket as it returned to the launch pad following a test flight. This groundbreaking event marks a significant step in the company’s pursuit of rapid reusability.
The “Super Heavy booster” launched alongside the Starship rocket and made a flawless controlled descent back to its launch pad in Texas. Utilizing massive mechanical “chopsticks” that extend from the launch tower, the booster was securely halted mid-air, as shown in a livestream from Elon Musk’s SpaceX. “Folks, this is a day for the engineering history books,” a SpaceX spokesperson announced as cheers erupted from the team.
Liftoff occurred at 7:25 AM (1225 GMT) in clear weather. While the booster returned to the launch pad, the upper stage of Starship was expected to splash down in the Indian Ocean shortly afterward.
In its previous flight in June, SpaceX celebrated its first successful splashdown with Starship, which Musk envisions as a future vessel for human missions to Mars. NASA is also keenly awaiting a modified version of Starship for crewed lunar landings under the Artemis program later this decade.
SpaceX engineers dedicated years of preparation and tens of thousands of hours to build the infrastructure necessary for this successful booster catch. Teams closely monitored numerous criteria to ensure a successful landing; had conditions not been favorable, the booster would have splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, as in previous tests.
Instead, with the green light given, the booster decelerated from supersonic speeds, and the powerful mechanical arms—dubbed “Mechazilla”—successfully caught it.
Standing at 397 feet (121 meters) tall when combined, Starship is approximately 90 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. The Super Heavy booster, measuring 233 feet tall, generates an impressive 16.7 million pounds (74.3 Meganewtons) of thrust, making it about twice as powerful as the Saturn V rockets used during the Apollo missions.
SpaceX’s “fail fast, learn fast” approach to rapid iterative testing has accelerated its development, contributing to its current status as a leader in the aerospace industry. Founded in 2002, SpaceX has rapidly surpassed established giants and now leads in orbital launches, while also operating the only U.S. spacecraft certified for crewed missions.
Despite its remarkable achievements, the company’s founding vision of making humanity a multiplanetary species faces challenges amid Elon Musk’s recent political alignments and disputes with the Federal Aviation Administration over launch licensing and regulatory issues. Marketing expert Mark Hass noted that Musk’s strategy to minimize regulatory interference could be a risky gamble, particularly with the upcoming presidential election.
