SpaceX catches upper stage of Starship rocket in historic first
The milestone flight deployed 26 Starlink satellites and advanced SpaceX’s push for a fully reusable rocket system.
- 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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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.
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SpaceX managed this Saturday to recover the Starship ship for the first time with the mechanical arms of its launch tower in South Texas, although it could not recover in the same way the Super Heavy propeller, diverted on the eve to waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
It's a historic moment. For the first time, the second stage of the Starship has landed successfully. Without any problems. However, this did not work with the booster on Friday night.
SpaceX's Starship successfully passes the test for reusable rockets after an orbital flight and landing correctly. Learn more: SpaceX successfully launches the Starship rocket on its fifteenth test flight, but ends up diverting the propellant to the sea
Elon Musk's SpaceX successfully captured a spacecraft for the first time in history on Saturday, a technical feat that confirms the feasibility of fully reusable rockets and brings more affordable spaceflight closer to reality.
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