SpaceX Catches Starship Rocket with Mechanical Arms After Orbital Flight

WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (OPA) — Following a 22-hour stay in space, the Starship rocket plunged back to Earth on Saturday, enduring the blazing heat of reentry while homing in on its Texas Gulf Coast launch site. The vehicle flipped vertical at the last moment and settled into the grasp of two huge mechanical arms on its launch gantry. Throngs of SpaceX employees gathered nearby cheered and applauded as the rocket restarted three of its six methane-fueled Raptor engines to flip upright, rapidly slowing to a near hover as the robot arms moved in for a mechanical embrace, catching the rocket a moment before engine shutdown.

"This is so incredible to see! One of the most incredible and historic engineering feats of all time has just happened right in front of our eyes," said SpaceX commentator Jessie Anderson. It was the first such recovery of a Starship from orbit, following previous test flights that ended with planned ocean splashdowns. The achievement marks a major milestone in SpaceX's drive to develop the first fully reusable orbit-class rocket, a vehicle company founder Elon Musk says will dramatically lower the cost of launching payloads to Earth orbit, the moon and Mars.

The 407-foot-tall, two-stage rocket launched atop a Super Heavy booster Friday using the same pad at SpaceX's Starbase facility on the Texas coast, generating 16 million pounds of thrust from 33 first-stage Raptor engines. While the upper stage succeeded, the Super Heavy booster launched Friday was diverted to an offshore splashdown because of a guidance problem. The vehicle ran out of fuel and exploded moments before hitting the water. Musk stated on the social media platform X that the problem was a slight underperformance of engines, noting that early ships and boosters are already outdated by improved designs.

SpaceX will need to successfully launch and recover a large number of Super Heavy-Starships to demonstrate statistical reliability for crewed flights. The company also needs to demonstrate its ability to autonomously refuel Starships in Earth orbit and keep propellants from boiling away. NASA wants to use a variant of the Starship to carry astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028, requiring multiple Super Heavy-tanker flights to refuel the lander in Earth orbit before it can head for the moon.