SpaceX made history with its latest Starship rocket launch, catching the spacecraft’s upper stage with its launch tower’s mechanical arms for the first time. Flight 15 lifted off from Starbase in Texas on Friday, November 13. The Ship returned on Saturday afternoon, about 22.5 hours after launch, and settled into the tower’s so-called chopsticks. SpaceX called the moment the holy grail of spaceflight. The mission fell short of a full double catch. The Super Heavy booster, which SpaceX has caught three times before, was diverted to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico after a low-fuel alarm. SpaceX plans to catch both stages on future operational flights to speed up inspection and reuse. Elon Musk is targeting 10,000 Starship launches a year by 2030 to build a 100,000-satellite Starlink network and a planned one-million-satellite Starmind AI constellation. SpaceX has yet to reuse a Ship, though the one caught on Saturday could fly again.
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