SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft splashed down in the Indian Ocean a little over an hour after its 8:25AM ET launch from South Texas. Almost seven minutes following liftoff, the Super Heavy booster returned to its launchpad, where the launch tower caught it using arms that SpaceX has nicknamed the “chopsticks.”
The remarkable catch was a first for SpaceX and an important step toward making the Super Heavy booster a fully reusable launch system just like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets. The booster completed a similar set of maneuvers to today’s during its previous flight test in June, when it splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, instead.
GIF: SpaceX Starship livestream.