SpaceX achieves historic first-ever Starship spacecraft catch at its Texas launch site after orbiting Earth 14 times, marking a major milestone in reusable rocket technology

STARBASE: Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Saturday carried out the first-ever recovery of a spaceship, pulling off a successful “catch” of its Starship vessel as it returned to its launch site after a day in orbit.

The spaceship emerged from a cloudy sky after withstanding the extreme heat of re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, and descended slowly over Starbase before slipping smoothly between mechanical “chopstick arms” above Launch Pad 2.

The feat marked a milestone in the space industry’s decades-long pursuit of fully reusable rocket systems — a goal that can drastically reduce mission costs and make more frequent launches possible.