SpaceX’s Starship returns to launch pad from orbit in victory for company

On Saturday, SpaceX's Starship spacecraft completed its first descent back to Earth after a 22-hour journey in orbit, marking a crucial milestone in the company's decade-long mission to develop a fully reusable rocket. The colossal 171-foot-tall (52-meter) rocket plunged from thick clouds over SpaceX's Starbase launch site, reignited its engines to verticalize itself, and gracefully descended into the Texas tower's "Mechazilla" arms while its engines continued to roar.

Charred by the intense heat of its return from space, the ship ultimately halted its engines and hung still.

SpaceX mission commentator Dan Huot hailed the successful catch as the "missing link, the holy grail of spaceflight." The two-stage rocket's Super Heavy booster, which had failed to return to the launch pad following its Friday launch, had earlier carried Starship to space. On Saturday, after deploying 26 Starlink satellites and orbiting Earth 14 times for 22.5 hours, the upper stage ignited one of its engines to begin a fiery atmospheric plunge over the Pacific Ocean.

As it plummeted at a blistering 17,000 miles per hour, the rocket's aerodynamic fins folded back, allowing two small fittings near the top to latch onto the launch tower's mechanical arms. Elon Musk and SpaceX engineers began inspecting the ship within hours of its capture, with Musk declaring on X, "Ship 42 looks great!"