After 22 Hours in Orbit, SpaceX Pulls Off Dramatic Midair Catch of Starship Rocket After Fiery Plunge

Starship returns to its launch site

The Starship upper stage spent 22 hours in space before descending toward its Texas Gulf Coast launch site on Saturday. Its heat-shield tiles glowed red during reentry, and the vehicle turned upright shortly before two mechanical arms on the launch gantry caught it.

SpaceX commentator Jessie Anderson called the event an extraordinary engineering achievement and congratulated the company’s team and supporters. The capture was the first time a Starship returning from orbit had been recovered; earlier test flights ended in planned ocean splashdowns.

Booster fails during return

After sending Starship out of the lower atmosphere, the Super Heavy first stage attempted to return to the launch site for a catch by the gantry arms. The booster was lost, disappointing the SpaceX team. Elon Musk said on X that the failure resulted from a “slight underperformance of engines.” He added that the booster and ships involved were already outdated compared with improved designs in production or testing, and said the loss would not change the timeline for high-volume, fully reusable flights.

More tests needed for crewed flights

The successful Starship catch marks progress toward SpaceX’s goal of a fully reusable, orbit-class rocket. Musk has said reusability could sharply reduce the cost of sending payloads to Earth orbit, the moon and eventually Mars.

SpaceX still needs to launch and recover many Super Heavy-Starships to establish the reliability required for crewed missions. The company also needs to show it can refuel Starships autonomously in Earth orbit and prevent their propellants from boiling away in space.

Orbital fueling plans ahead

SpaceX plans to begin orbital fueling tests during the next several Super Heavy-Starship flights. Development has taken longer than initially expected.