STARBASE, Nov 15 — Elon Musk’s SpaceX yesterday pulled off the first-ever “catch” of a spaceship, a technical feat that shows the feasibility of fully reusable rockets and brings affordable spaceflight one step closer to reality.
The Starship emerged from a cloudy sky after surviving the extreme heat of re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, then descended slowly over Starbase before slipping smoothly between mechanical “chopstick arms” above Launch Pad 2.
The success 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.
“That was the Holy Grail of spaceflight, plummeting through fire to be snatched out of the air by steel. We caught a Starship and now, everything changes,” SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot said.
