SpaceX's Super Heavy booster successfully returned to the pad after liftoff and was caught by the launch tower's mechanical arms in an incredible feat Sunday morning. The milestone occurred during the company's fifth Starship flight and is a big step toward the planned reusability of the rocket. Starship launched at approximately 8:25 a.m. ET from SpaceX's Boca Chica, Texas starbase.
Landing rockets is nothing new for SpaceX, which has been repurposing its Falcon 9 workhorse for several years, but the company took a completely different approach to recovering Super Heavy. While Falcon 9 normally lands on an unmanned ship in the ocean, Super Heavy returned to its launch site and had to navigate into the narrow opening between the extended “chopsticks” of the launch towers. The move risked destroying the tower if Super Heavy didn't perform it correctly. However, it did, and live footage of the flight test shows the booster being carefully parked on the tower to thunderous applause from everyone watching from the observation room.
Meanwhile, Starship continued its flight for about an hour after separating from the booster and splashdown in the Indian Ocean as planned around 9:30 a.m. ET. The entire Starship transport system, consisting of the Super Heavy first stage and the Starship second stage, is designed to be reusable.
