SpaceX catches Starship after orbital flight, booster destroyed over Gulf

SpaceX successfully caught its Starship spacecraft with mechanical arms after it returned from orbit, completing 14 orbits and deploying 26 Starlink satellites. The Superheavy booster was destroyed over the Gulf of Mexico due to a fuel shortage.

SpaceX succeeded today (Saturday) in catching the Starship spacecraft for the first time after it returned from orbit around Earth. In an unmanned test flight lasting about 22 hours, the spacecraft returned to the launch site in South Texas. It slowed down using its engines and hovered next to the tower, until two mechanical arms caught it in mid-air. According to Reuters, this is the first time a spacecraft launched vertically and entered orbit around Earth returned to the point from which it took off. The spacecraft reached an altitude of about 265 kilometers, released 26 Starlink satellites, and completed 14 orbits around Earth. SpaceX also planned to catch the Superheavy booster, but its engines stopped operating too early during descent, and it was destroyed over the Gulf of Mexico. NASA congratulated the achievement; the agency contracted with SpaceX to use a version of Starship to land astronauts on the Moon as part of the Artemis program.