The historic maneuver marks the first successful recovery of an orbital vehicle using a launch tower\u2019s robotic arms<\/p>\n
SpaceX has successfully caught its Starship spacecraft returning from orbit, using giant mechanical arms to capture the vehicle in midair at its launch site in Texas.
\nThe historic maneuver took place on Saturday afternoon, after the spacecraft completed 14 orbits of Earth during a mission lasting more than 22 hours. It\u2019s the first time SpaceX has recovered a Starship spacecraft from orbit.
\nThe 124-meter Starship, the world\u2019s largest and most powerful rocket, launched from the company\u2019s Starbase facility in southern Texas on Friday. The upper stage successfully reached orbit and deployed 26 next-generation Starlink satellites.
\nThe mission suffered an early setback when the Super Heavy first-stage booster failed to return to the launch tower. SpaceX aborted the planned catch after the booster deviated from its intended trajectory, diverting it toward the Gulf of Mexico, where it exploded.
\nAfter completing the journey, the spacecraft reentered Earth\u2019s atmosphere and descended toward Starbase. It flipped upright and was captured by two enormous mechanical arms, known as \u2018chopsticks\u2019, mounted on the launch tower.<\/p>\n
They did it! SpaceX has just caught their Starship rocket for the first time ever, marking the first recovery of a conventional orbital rocket upper stage in history!<\/p>\n
This is one of the greatest engineering achievements in history. Congrats to the entire @SpaceX team! \ud83d\ude80 https:\/\/t.co\/9KAzAcd3e8\u2014 Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) November 14, 2026<\/p>\n
The recovery marks a major step toward SpaceX\u2019s goal of making both stages of Starship fully reusable, potentially reducing launch costs and allowing more frequent flights.
\nThe system is central to Elon Musk\u2019s ambitions to transport humans to the Moon and Mars. NASA has also selected a modified version of Starship to land astronauts on the lunar surface as part of its Artemis program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The historic maneuver marks the first successful recovery of an orbital vehicle using a launch tower\u2019s robotic arms SpaceX has successfully caught its Starship spacecraft returning from orbit, using giant…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t