SpaceX launches 5th Starship — with a catch

SpaceX successfully completed a Starship rocket test flight, managing to catch the returning booster at the pad with mechanical arms — a crucial step in the quest to make fully reusable rockets.

The Starship rocket took off from a base in Texas at 7:25 a.m. local time. SpaceX then returned the rocket’s first-stage booster — which propels the craft off the ground — back to the launch site and caught it in midair using mechanical “chopsticks.”

The upper-stage spacecraft coasted through space for around 20 minutes before reentering the atmosphere and starting a downward trajectory toward the Indian Ocean, where it exploded upon landing.

Starship’s previous four test flights occurred in April and November of 2023 and March and June of this year. This has been the most ambitious so far.

During the last test flight in June, both the booster and the main body of the rocket survived and landed in their designated splashdown zones — though the latter suffered heat damage.

Standing 121 meters tall, the giant Starship rocket is designed to fulfill SpaceX’s — and founder and CEO Elon Musk’s — ambition to send people and supplies to the moon and, eventually, to Mars.

Musk celebrated the event on X, saying it was a “big step towards making life multiplanetary.”