SpaceX's Starship upper stage returned from a 22.5-hour flight and was caught by the "Mechazilla" arms of its launch tower at Starbase, Texas, on Saturday, the first time the ship has been caught after orbiting Earth. The 52-metre Ship 42 orbited 14 times after launching Friday and deployed 26 Starlink satellites at about 260 km altitude.
It re-entered over the Pacific at roughly 17,000 mph, flipped vertical on its engines and settled into the tower arms. Commentator Dan Huot called it "the missing link, the holy grail of spaceflight." The Super Heavy booster, however, failed to return to the pad, so SpaceX still has not recovered both stages in one mission.
SpaceX has spent more than $15 billion on Starship, and NASA has provided $3.2 billion under a contract worth over $4 billion for Artemis lunar landings. The heat-shield tiles are also not yet fully reusable.