SpaceX aces Starship’s 5th test flight, makes historic catch of Super Heavy booster

Billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Sunday successfully conducted its fifth test flight, and made a historic catch of a Super Heavy booster with “Chopstick arms”.

The 400-foot-tall Starship rocket along with the Heavy booster -- the world's largest and most powerful rocket -- launched the flight after 8 a.m. EDT (5:30 pm IST) from its Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas.

“Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster!,” SpaceX said in a post on X after the Super Heavy booster successfully headed back to its launch site.

“The tower has caught the rocket!!” added Founder Elon Musk.

During its last flight in June, SpaceX achieved its first successful splashdown in the Indian Ocean with the upper stage of Starship.

“The new feat will be a key step in the company's quest for rapid reusability,” the company said prior to launch.

The company noted that its engineers had spent years preparing and months testing for the booster catch attempt.

It added that technicians poured tens of thousands of hours into building the infrastructure to maximise the chances for success.

Further, SpaceX noted that its Starship vehicle is in a 1-hour coast phase, where it will reenter over the Indian Ocean, west of Australia.

“Starship’s Raptor engine burn is complete and Starship has entered a coast phase,” it said, noting that this flight path does not require a deorbit burn for reentry.

“This will maximise public safety but still make a controlled reentry and soft water landing.”

Meanwhile, rival Blue Origin “congratulated” SpaceX.

The Jeff Bezos-owned company will also again attempt to debut its second human-rated spacecraft, nearly a week after technical issues thwarted its first launch attempt.

The second human-rated New Shepard vehicle consists of a first stage known as Booster 5 and a crew capsule named RSS Karman Line. Karman Line is the internationally recognised boundary of space.

While uncrewed, the NS-27 mission will fly 12 research payloads, five of them on the booster and seven inside the capsule. This includes new navigation systems developed for New Shepard and Blue Origin's huge New Glenn rocket, as well as two LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors designed to operate in the lunar environment, according to Blue Origin.