Musk’s SpaceX catches returning booster rocket in technical milestone
Patrick Temple-West reporting from New York.
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Early Sunday morning, Elon Musk's SpaceX achieved a remarkable technical milestone by successfully capturing a booster rocket with robotic arms as it returned from a test flight.
At sunrise along the Texas coastline, SpaceX sent an autonomous Starship rocket into the sky, complete with its powerful "super heavy booster." Following a short ascent into the atmosphere, the booster detached from the Starship and made a vertical descent, slowing its fall by firing its engines.
The booster landed straight back on the launch pad, caught by the tower's metallic arms, known as "chopsticks," amidst a cloud of smoke and flames.
"The tower has successfully captured the rocket!" Musk shared on his social media platform, X. "Today marks a significant advancement in our journey to enable life on multiple planets."
"Even today, what we just witnessed feels like magic," commented Dan Huot, SpaceX's communications manager, during the company's livestream. "I'm honestly shaking with excitement right now."
The remainder of the spacecraft circled the Earth before landing in the Indian Ocean as scheduled.
On Sunday, SpaceX is set to launch its fifth Starship mission, solidifying its position as one of the top private companies globally. Back in June, the Starship successfully returned to Earth’s atmosphere and landed in the Indian Ocean. Additionally, in September, SpaceX organized the first-ever privately funded spacewalk featuring two astronauts.
Successfully catching the booster is essential for Starship's design as a completely reusable spacecraft. Once Starship begins its missions, SpaceX claims it will be able to conduct space travel more quickly. Morgan Stanley has projected that each Starship launch currently costs around $100 million, but this cost could potentially decrease to $50 million in the future.
SpaceX is gearing up for a crewed mission around the moon in 2025, followed by an attempt to land on the lunar surface in 2026.
According to a report from Morgan Stanley in April, SpaceX's latest valuation stands at $180 billion, positioning it among the top 50 most valuable firms in the S&P 500 index. Additionally, its Starlink branch has established the largest satellite network globally, serving 2.6 million customers.
The report stated, "We anticipate that Starship will be ready for commercial and government launches by 2027. Moving into 2030 and later, we foresee that all SpaceX launches will be conducted using Starship."
However, the successful mission on Sunday followed Tesla's recent announcement of a "robotaxi" just two days earlier, which did not meet investor expectations. As a result, Tesla's stock price has dropped by 13 percent in the last year.
Elon Musk, who is currently the wealthiest person in the world, has emerged as one of Donald Trump's most prominent backers. This month, they joined forces at a rally in Pennsylvania.
