Starship spacecraft caught by launch tower for first time

Wreckage remained in the Gulf of Mexico, cordoned off by buoys, as the stainless steel, bullet-shaped spacecraft lowered itself upright at the launch pad. The dramatic, sci-fi-like capture helped blot out the booster’s messy miss.

“Can you believe it?” shouted SpaceX commentator Dan Huot. SpaceX officials said Saturday’s catch demonstrates the full reusability of Starship, intended for moon and Mars travel. Although Friday’s booster recovery failed, the company had already made three previous booster catches, validating the technique.

NASA welcomed Saturday’s news. The space agency is paying billions of dollars for Starship to land Artemis astronauts on the moon later this decade and help build a permanent lunar base. Musk’s ambitions are even grander: He wants to launch a fleet of Starships to build a city on Mars.

The world’s largest and most powerful rocket — a 124-meter behemoth — blasted off late Friday afternoon from SpaceX’s Starship base near the US-Mexican border. Separating neatly from its booster before things went awry, the upper-stage spacecraft soared into orbit and released 26 advanced Starlink satellites.

Starship continued circling the world 165 miles (265 kilometers) up, with live views of itself and Earth streaming down via Starlink. The spacecraft completed 14 laps around Earth, outshining the previous mission’s one to two laps.

It was SpaceX’s 15th flight of a full-scale Starship since 2023 and its only second trip to orbit. SpaceX reported that everything on the spacecraft, including its vital heat shield, appeared to work well. As for the booster, SpaceX’s Kate Tice said its engines stopped firing too soon on the way back down.

The booster’s guidance system sensed it wasn’t in the right position and automatically initiated the watery detour and self-destruction. Engineers are still investigating the cause.