SpaceX pulled off a historic first on Saturday when its massive Starship vehicle returned from Earth orbit and nestled itself between two towering mechanical arms at the company’s South Texas launch site. The catch, executed by a system dubbed Mechazilla, marks the first time an orbital-class rocket has been snagged out of the air rather than landing on a pad or drone ship.
The 170-foot upper stage had been circling the planet at 260 kilometers up, moving faster than 27,359 kilometers per hour. After 14 orbits and roughly 22 hours, it fired its engines to drop from orbit, survived the fiery plunge through the atmosphere, and guided itself back to Starbase using its flaps. In the final moments, the engines relit, the vehicle flipped vertical, and the tower’s arms closed around it like a giant claw.
Not everything went to plan.
The Super Heavy booster, which separated earlier in the flight, suffered a technical problem and couldn’t attempt its own tower return. Instead, it performed a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. SpaceX says it’s reviewing the data. Despite that setback, the mission deployed 26 next-generation Starlink satellites before heading home.
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman and Google CEO Sundar Pichai both congratulated the team. Elon Musk praised his engineers for the milestone. The catch capability is critical for NASA’s Artemis program, which plans to use a Starship variant to land astronauts on the Moon — though orbital refueling, still unproven, remains a prerequisite. SpaceX intends to ramp up launch frequency and begin operations from a new Florida pad soon.
