![\"SpaceX\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/theme\/images\/th-online\/1x1_spacer.png\" "\\"SpaceX\u2019s")
<\/picture><\/div>\nSpaceX\u2019s Starship made a triumphant return to Earth on Saturday (November 14, 2026), caught in midair by giant mechanical arms where its journey began 22 hours earlier.<\/p>\n
It was the grand finale that Elon Musk and his team hoped for \u2014 the first-ever capture of a Starship flying back from space. But with the first-stage booster exploding shortly after Friday\u2019s liftoff from Texas, the company fell short of its desired double catch.<\/p>\n
Wreckage remained in the Gulf of Mexico, cordoned off by buoys, as the stainless steel, bullet-shaped spacecraft lowered itself upright at the launch pad.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you believe it?\u201d shouted SpaceX commentator Dan Huot.<\/p>\n
SpaceX officials said Saturday\u2019s catch demonstrates the full reusability of Starship, intended for moon and Mars travel. Although Friday\u2019s booster recovery failed, the company had already made three previous booster catches, validating the technique.<\/p>\n
NASA welcomed Saturday\u2019s news. The space agency is paying billions of dollars for Starship to land Artemis astronauts on the moon later this decade and help build a permanent lunar base. Musk\u2019s ambitions are even grander: He wants to launch a fleet of Starships to build a city on Mars.<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s largest and most powerful rocket \u2014 a 407-foot (124-metre) behemoth \u2014 blasted off late Friday afternoon from SpaceX\u2019s Starship base near the U.S.-Mexican border. Separating neatly from its booster before things went awry, the upper-stage spacecraft soared into orbit and released 26 advanced Starlink satellites.<\/p>\n
Starship continued circling the world 165 miles (265 kilometres) up, with live views of itself and Earth streaming down via Starlink. The spacecraft completed 14 laps around Earth, outshining the previous mission\u2019s one to two laps.<\/p>\n
It was SpaceX\u2019s 15th flight of a full-scale Starship since 2023 and its only second trip to orbit.<\/p>\n
SpaceX reported that everything on the spacecraft, including its vital heat shield, appeared to work well.<\/p>\n
As for the booster, SpaceX\u2019s Kate Tice said its engines stopped firing too soon on the way back down. The booster\u2019s guidance system sensed it wasn\u2019t in the right position and automatically initiated the watery detour and self-destruction. Engineers are still investigating the cause.<\/p>\n
SpaceX expects to begin launching Starships from Florida\u2019s Kennedy Space Center within the next few months. That is the starting point for NASA\u2019s next Artemis mission, which will skip the moon and remain in orbit around Earth for lunar lander practice.<\/p>\n
Artemis III\u2019s four astronauts will attempt to dock their capsule with not only Starship but also Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon. The two companies will take turns delivering crews to the lunar surface. NASA is targeting as soon as 2028 for Artemis IV, humanity\u2019s first moon landing since the Apollo era more than half a century ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n