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SpaceX caught a returning Starship spaceship out of the air for the first time on Saturday, a milestone that brings fully reusable rockets and cheaper spaceflight, a step closer. Starship is the giant rocket system built by Elon Musk’s company.
After surviving the extreme heat of re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the spaceship emerged from the clouds and descended slowly over Starbase, SpaceX’s launch site in South Texas, before settling between the mechanical “chopstick arms” of Launch Pad 2.
SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot called the catch the holy grail of spaceflight and said everything now changes. Spectator Dane Walter, 38, who traveled from Corpus Christi, Texas, compared the moment to the Wright brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk.
It was the 15th test flight of the world’s most powerful rocket system. Until now, spaceships have been single-use. This one orbited Earth 14 times and deployed 26 satellites for Musk’s Starlink internet constellation during a 22-hour flight. SpaceX had caught returning booster rockets three times before, but a spaceship is harder because it falls faster from a much greater height.
Musk said on X that he “hugged ship 42” after its return. Clayton Swope of the Center for Strategic and International Studies called the mission a huge technical achievement. Kathleen Curlee of Georgetown University said SpaceX needs repeated successes before it can handle sensitive payloads.
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NASA expects Starship to serve as a lunar lander in its Artemis Moon program, and Administrator Jared Isaacman called the recovery “almost magic.” Musk predicts Starship launches more than once an hour within three to four years.
Challenges remain, including transferring fuel between spaceships in orbit, a step required for Moon or Mars missions. On Friday, the Super Heavy booster, the first stage that lifts Starship, had a technical issue and splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico instead of being caught.
SpaceX, which raised about $85.7 billion in a June stock market debut, says it can now build a spaceship every two weeks and a booster every four.
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