Elon Musk’s SpaceX has successfully completed the first-ever mid-air “catch” of its Starship spacecraft using mechanical arms in Texas, advancing fully reusable spaceflight.
STARBASE: Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Saturday pulled off the first-ever “catch” of a spaceship, a technical feat showing the feasibility of fully reusable rockets that would bring affordable spaceflight one step closer to reality.
The Starship emerged from the clouds after surviving the extreme heat of re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, then descended slowly over SpaceX’s south Texas 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.
