SpaceX’s spacecraft captured by launch pad arms in dramatic premiere | Elon Musk News

SpaceX officials say the capture by the mechanical arms shows the Starship’s full reusability, crucial for rapid, low-cost recycling.

SpaceX’s Starship ‌spacecraft has returned to Earth, caught mid-flight by giant mechanical arms where its journey began 22 hours earlier.

The spacecraft emerged from cloudy skies Saturday, descending slowly above Starbase before sliding smoothly between mechanical “wand arms” above Launch Pad 2 in Texas – the first-ever capture of a spacecraft returning from space.

Shortly after, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk congratulated his “incredible team.”

SpaceX officials said Saturday’s capture demonstrates the Starship’s full reusability, crucial for rapid, low-cost recycling.

However, with the explosion of the first stage booster shortly after liftoff Friday from Texas, the company failed to achieve the desired double capture.

Separating neatly from its booster before things went wrong, the upper stage spacecraft rocketed into orbit and released 26 advanced Starlink satellites.

SpaceX’s Kate Tice said its engines stopped working too soon during descent. The booster’s guidance system detected that it was not in the correct position and automatically initiated the aquatic detour and self-destruct. Engineers are still investigating the cause.

Although Friday’s recall capture failed, the company had already performed three previous recall captures, validating the technique.

NASA, which is paying billions of dollars for Starship to land Artemis astronauts on the Moon later this decade, welcomed the achievement.

“It was almost magical,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on X.

Starship completed 14 laps around Earth, or 265 km (165 miles), surpassing one to two laps from the previous mission.

SpaceX reported that everything aboard the spacecraft, including its vital heat shield, appeared to be working well.

It was SpaceX’s 15th large-scale spacecraft flight since 2023 and only its second trip to orbit.

Starship, a 124-meter (407-foot) giant, is the world’s largest and most powerful rocket, intended for trips to the Moon and Mars.

SpaceX plans to begin launching spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the coming months.