SpaceX Catches Starship in the Air After 22 Hours in Orbit — A First in Space History

Yesterday was a good day for SpaceX and Elon Musk, and a banner day in the history of man's quest for the stars.

Not only did the launch of Starship, the largest interplantery rocket in the SpaceX fleet, standing over 400 feet tall and weighing over 5,000 tons, go off without a hitch from the Starbase launchpad in Boca Chica, Texas, but the vessel successfully delivered its payload of 26 Starlink V3 satellites over the course of its 22.5-hour mission, according to reporting from CNN, while orbiting the Earth 14 times.

But the real sticking point was always going to be the landing, where the SpaceX team attempted to prove their "reusable" rocket theory by successfully catching the falling Starship with some well-timed rocket boosters and incredible feats of engineering. The catch has been attempted a few times before on prior missions, successfully for the Super Heavy Booster on three occasions, but yesterday marked the first time the actual Starship was caught by the company's giant mechanical arms.