Key facts
- Two nubs on either side of the Starship upper stage, each protruding about one foot, were the only purchase on the tower arms.
- The catch came less than a minute after the vehicle came into view from the cloud deck.
- SpaceX was founded nearly a quarter of a century before the catch.
- NASA's Space Shuttle orbiters returned to Earth and landed on a runway; their solid rocket boosters were fished from the ocean and reused.
The Starship upper stage fell out of the sky and emerged from the cloud deck near the end of its flight, flying horizontally until the last moment, when three Raptor rocket engines ignited and it swung into a vertical position. It eased toward the waiting tower, where two arms extended outward, and was snagged less than a minute after it came into view.
Two nubs on either side of the rocket, each protruding only about one foot, were the only purchase the rocket would have on the arms. The catch came nearly a quarter of a century after SpaceX was founded and followed a handful of practice runs into the Indian Ocean, according to the report.
The vehicle had launched from Starbase, Texas, a little less than a day earlier and orbited the planet multiple times before returning to Earth under its own power. Humans have built reusable spacecraft that flew into orbit before: NASA designed and built several Space Shuttles, whose solid rocket boosters were fished from the ocean and reused, while the orbiters returned to Earth and landed on a runway.