SpaceX catches rocket booster in historic Starship test flight: 'Science fiction come true'

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Published  October 14, 2024 7:06pm EDT
FOX 35 Orlando
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SpaceX uses giant arms to grab Falcon Heavy on landing

NASA and SpaceX launched the Europa Clipper spacecraft towards Jupiter on Monday, the largest spacecraft ever built for a planetary mission. A day earlier in Texas, SpaceX celebrated an engineering win -- using giant metal arms to literally grab one of its Falcon Heavy Boosters mid-air after returning to Earth after a test flight.

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. - SpaceX made history on its latest Starship test flight. 

It wasn’t because of the rocket launch this time around. Instead, the booster stole the spotlight with its one-of-a-kind recovery. 

"There’s just nothing like it ever. It's science fiction come true," said space expert Ken Kremer. 

The company successfully launched the world’s largest rocket on Sunday in Boca Chica, TX. Then, they caught the booster with super huge mechanical chopsticks.

"This is a 22-story tall rocket ship flying back autonomously and being caught within a few centimeters by these two massive arms," said Zac Aubert who founded The Launch Pad Network and had some of his team in Texas to record the weekend launch. 

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No company in the world has ever tried to do this kind of recovery before, but Elon Musk is laser-focused on re-using rockets and cutting costs in his company. 

"We need to be able to catch these, put them down, throw another ship on, fuel, and go again," said Aubert. 

While this test flight happened over in Texas, SpaceX will eventually launch Starship on the Space Coast, so perfecting this type of booster recovery is very important for public safety.

"They want to land them at Pad 39A also and yeah, if it isn’t spot on, it will destroy the pad," said Kremer. 

Starship will be used to take astronauts back to the moon and, eventually, Mars.

The booster landing wasn’t the only win on Starship’s fifth test flight.

"They had to be incredibly precise," noted Aubert. 

The Starship rocket also landed where it was supposed to in the Indian Ocean. 

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