SpaceX catches upper stage of Starship rocket in historic first
The upper stage deployed 26 Starlink satellites and completed 14 laps around Earth before the first-ever orbital catch, SpaceX said.
- On Saturday, SpaceX successfully caught its Starship upper stage using giant mechanical arms at Starbase, Texas, after the spacecraft, Ship 42, completed 14 orbits over a 22-hour flight.
- SpaceX fell short of its goal to recover both rocket stages when the Super Heavy booster aborted its landing attempt Friday due to a low-fuel alarm, resulting in an offshore splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Deploying 26 Starlink V3 satellites, Ship 42 returned to be secured by the launch tower's mechanical 'chopstick' arms, which SpaceX commentator Dan Huot called "the missing link" of spaceflight.
- This midair capture serves as a major proof of concept for the Starship program, marking the first time an orbital upper stage has been fully recovered—essential to SpaceX's goal of fully reusable rocket systems.
- NASA's Artemis lunar missions and eventual Mars exploration will rely on Starship technology, as SpaceX aims to increase launch cadence to support a constellation of up to one million satellites for orbital data infrastructure.
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SpaceX makes history with successful rocket catch in Texas
STARBASE, Texas — SpaceX’s giant Starship spacecraft pulled off a remarkable feat on Saturday afternoon in the quest to build fully reusable rockets. For the first time, the spacecraft successfully returned from orbit to its launch site in South Texas, where it was caught between two mechanical arms on the launch tower.
SpaceX Starship successfully returned from orbit to Starship Landing Site <p>SpaceX after 22.5-hour flight carried 26 Starlink satellites and returned to the launch tower for the first time with mechanical hands. The company aims to create a fully reusable system for flights to the Moon</p>.
Glorious Starship capture! SpaceX makes spaceflight history (again)
SpaceX has achieved its first Starship capture! The catching mechanism nicknamed Mechazilla grabbed Starship out of the air over Starbase in South Texas. The post Glorious Starship capture! SpaceX makes spaceflight history (again) first appeared on EarthSky.
The space company of Elon Musk completed on Saturday a complex maneuver to bring back the upper part of his mega-fusée to Earth in a single piece. A new milestone in the United States' desire to return to the Moon.
SpaceX je u subotu prvi put uhvatio gornji stupanj svog divovskog raketnog sustava Starship po povratku na Zemlj s probnog leta u svemir. Oko 20 sati nakon lansiranja, Starship se vratio u svemirsku luku Starbase u južnom Texas, […] Objava Spectacularan prizor iz from Texas, Goleme mehaničke ruke prvi put uhvatile Muskovo čudovište od 120 metara pojavila se prvi puta na Novi list.
Elon Musk's SpaceX catches giant Starship rocket as it returns to Earth in major breakthrough
SpaceX has marked a historic achievement after recovering its Starship spacecraft in midair for the first time.The manoeuvre saw the bullet-shaped vessel snatched out of the sky with giant mechanical arms at its Starbase facility in south Texas.The 52-metre upper stage descended through cloud cover yesterday after enduring the punishing heat of atmospheric re-entry.It then slowed itself with engine burns before slipping between the tower's so-ca…
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