Elon Musk’s SpaceX Launches 5th Starship Test—And Catches Booster In Mid-Air

 

The SpaceX Starship lifts off from Starbase near Brownsville, Texas, on Sunday for the Starship Flight 5 test. SpaceX successfully "caught" the first-stage booster of its Starship megarocket Sunday as it returned to the launch pad after a test flight, a world first in the company's quest for rapid reusability.

SpaceX’s Starship had its fifth test launch in 18 months on Sunday morning and successfully caught a component of the rocket with mechanical arms near where it was launched in Texas, multiple outlets reported, marking a major milestone for Elon Musk’s aerospace company.

Key Facts

The Starship and its Super Heavy booster launched near Brownsville, Texas, around 8:25 a.m. EDT, The New York Times reported, and the Super Heavy returned just after 8:30 a.m., when it was caught in mid-air by the two mechanical arms after launching the ship.

The Starship successfully splashed down in the Indian Ocean about an hour later just after 9:30 a.m. EDT, according to SpaceX.

SpaceX said in a post on the Musk-owned X, formerly known as Twitter, the primary objectives for this launch were “to catch the Super Heavy booster and another Starship reentry and landing burn, aiming for an on-target splashdown of Starship in the Indian Ocean” with the broader goal of “revolutioniz(ing) humanity’s ability to access space.”

SpaceX’s last launch was in June and marked the first successful reentry of the company’s spacecraft into the atmosphere after three previous attempts.

SpaceX broadcasted the Starship launch and journey on SpaceX’s X page.

Big Number

12,000. That’s how many hours SpaceX said its engineers have worked since the last flight in June in order to revamp the ship’s heat shield with more protections after some of the protective tiles were destroyed upon return in its last launch, the BBC reported.

Forbes Valuation

We estimate Musk to have a net worth of about $245.8 billion as of Sunday morning, making him the wealthiest person in the world.