SpaceX Catches Giant Starship Booster With Mechanical Arms

Elon Musk wants SpaceX to be the first company to build a reusable spaceship and rocket, with the goal of ferrying people to the moon and Mars.

Starship's Super Heavy Booster is grappled at the launch pad in Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on Oct. 13, 2024, during the Starship Flight 5 test. Seigio Flores/AFP via Getty Images

SpaceX, in its fifth Starship test flight on Oct. 13, caught its returning giant booster back at the launch pad with mechanical arms.

The rocket’s first stage “Super Heavy” booster lifted off at 7:25 a.m. CDT from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas, launch facilities, sending the Starship second-stage rocket toward space before separating at an altitude of roughly 40 miles to begin its return to land—the most daring part of the test flight.