The historic maneuver marks the first successful recovery of an orbital vehicle using a launch tower’s robotic arms.
SpaceX has successfully caught its Starship spacecraft returning from orbit, using giant mechanical arms to capture the vehicle in midair at its launch site in Texas.
The historic maneuver took place on Saturday afternoon, after the spacecraft completed 14 orbits of Earth during a mission lasting more than 22 hours. It’s the first time SpaceX has recovered a Starship spacecraft from orbit.
The 124-meter Starship, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket, launched from the company’s Starbase facility in southern Texas on Friday. The upper stage successfully reached orbit and deployed 26 next-generation Starlink satellites.
The mission suffered an early setback when the Super Heavy first-stage booster failed to return to the launch tower. SpaceX aborted the planned catch after the booster deviated from its intended trajectory, diverting it toward the Gulf of Mexico, where it exploded.
After completing the journey, the spacecraft reentered Earth’s atmosphere and descended toward Starbase. It flipped upright and was captured by two enormous mechanical arms, known as ‘chopsticks’, mounted on the launch tower.
They did it! SpaceX has just caught their Starship rocket for the first time ever, marking the first recovery of a conventional orbital rocket upper stage in history!
This is one of the greatest engineering achievements in history. Congrats to the entire @SpaceX team! 🚀 https://t.co/9KAzAcd3e8
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) November 14, 2026
The recovery marks a major step toward SpaceX’s goal of making both stages of Starship fully reusable, potentially reducing launch costs and allowing more frequent flights.
The system is central to Elon Musk’s ambitions to transport humans to the Moon and Mars. NASA has also selected a modified version of Starship to land astronauts on the lunar surface as part of its Artemis program.
