The SpaceX Starship has successfully landed in Texas after its boldest test flight yet.
Elon Musk’s 400-foot rocket blasted off at sunrise from close to the Mexico border before landing on metal ‘chopsticks’ – a pad with mechanical arms.
It took the same path over the Gulf of Mexico as the four previous Starships which ended up being destroyed, either soon after liftoff or by ditching into the sea.
‘Even in this day and age, what we just saw is magic,’ SpaceX’s Dan Huot observed from close to the launch site after the booster touched down. ‘I am shaking right now.’
Towering almost 400 feet (121 meters), the empty rocket blasted off at sunrise from the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border
‘The tower has caught the rocket!!’ SpaceX founder Elon Musk said via X.
Company employees screamed in joy as the booster slowly lowered itself into the launch tower’s arms.
‘Folks, this is a day for the engineering history books,’ added SpaceX’s Kate Tice from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
SpaceX brought the first-stage booster back to land at the pad from which it had soared seven minutes earlier.
The launch tower sported monstrous metal arms, dubbed chopsticks, that caught the descending 232-foot (71-meter) booster.
It was up to the flight director to decide, in real time with a manual control, whether to attempt the landing.
SpaceX said both the booster and launch tower had to be in good, stable condition. Otherwise, it was going to end up in the gulf like the previous ones.
Everything was judged to be ready for the catch.
This time, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk upped the challenge and risk
The retro-looking stainless steel spacecraft on top continued around the world once free of the booster, targeting a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean, where it would sink to the bottom.
The entire flight was expected to last just over an hour.
The June flight came up short at the end after pieces came off. SpaceX upgraded the software and reworked the heat shield, improving the thermal tiles.
This is a breaking news story with updates to follow.
