SpaceX’s Starship captured by launchpad arms in dramatic first
SpaceX achieved a major milestone at Starbase in Texas on Saturday, catching the returning Starship upper-stage spacecraft midair with mechanical launchpad arms at Launch Pad 2. The capture marked the first-ever recovery of a Starship returning from space. Concluding a 22-hour mission, the 124-metre (407ft) rocket completed 14 orbits around Earth at an altitude of 265 kilometres (165 miles) and deployed 26 advanced Starlink satellites, with its heat shield performing as designed on this 15th full-scale flight and second trip to orbit.
The triumph came despite a failure during Friday's liftoff, where the first-stage booster exploded. According to SpaceX’s Kate Tice, the booster's engines cut off prematurely on descent, triggering its guidance system to automatically initiate a watery detour and self-destruction. SpaceX engineers are investigating the cause, though the company had already validated booster recovery with three previous catches.
NASA, which is funding Starship with billions of dollars for Artemis lunar landings later this decade, welcomed the result, with Administrator Jared Isaacman calling it "almost magic." SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk congratulated his team as the company prepares to begin launching Starships from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center within the next few months.
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