SpaceX Achieves Milestone in Fifth Starship Test Flight, Successfully Catches Booster with Giant Mechanical Arms
In a significant engineering breakthrough, SpaceX successfully returned the first stage of its Starship rocket to the launch pad during its fifth test flight on Sunday. Using giant mechanical arms, the company caught the towering “Super Heavy” booster, marking a major step toward building a fully reusable vehicle for moon and Mars missions.
The test flight began at 7:25 a.m. CT (1225 GMT) when the Super Heavy booster launched from SpaceX’s Boca Chica facility in Texas. The booster sent the second stage Starship toward space, separating at an altitude of roughly 70 km (40 miles). This set the stage for the most daring part of the flight—the booster’s controlled descent back to the launch site.
The Super Heavy re-lit three of its 33 Raptor engines to slow its descent, steering toward the launch pad and tower from which it had launched. The tower, standing over 400 feet tall, is equipped with two large metal arms designed to catch the returning booster. As the 233-foot (71-meter) booster approached, it hooked onto the arms using tiny bars beneath its four grid fins, completing a remarkable feat of precision landing.
“The tower has caught the rocket!!” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted on X, as engineers cheered the accomplishment during the live stream.
This innovative catch method is part of SpaceX’s push for a fully reusable rocket capable of carrying more cargo into orbit, ferrying humans to the moon for NASA, and eventually reaching Mars—Musk’s long-term goal.
While the Super Heavy booster made its landing, the second stage Starship cruised through space at 17,000 miles per hour, preparing for a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. As it reentered Earth’s atmosphere, the ship endured intense hypersonic friction, its heat-shielding tiles glowing with a pinkish-purple plasma.
Starship re-ignited one of its engines to position itself upright for the simulated ocean landing. After touching down in the nighttime waters off the coast of Australia, the ship tipped over, and moments later, exploded into a fireball. The cause of the explosion remains unclear, but SpaceX engineers celebrated the mission’s success.
Musk confirmed the ship landed “precisely on target.”
Starship, first introduced by Musk in 2017, has exploded several times during earlier tests but completed its first full flight in June. Sunday’s mission was cleared by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which had approved SpaceX’s launch license after weeks of regulatory tension over the pace of approvals.
Source: Reuters
