Space travel: SpaceX picks up the giant Starship rocket for the first time

Elon Musk wants to explore Mars with the largest rocket system ever built in space history. Now the Starship has completed another test flight - with a setback and a success.

It was the 15th test flight of the giant rocket. Photo: Eric Gay/AP/dpa

Starbase. For the first time, the US space company SpaceX has recovered the upper stage of the giant Starship rocket system after an all-space test flight on Earth. Around 20 hours after launch, the Starship returned in a controlled manner to the Starbase spaceport in the US state of Texas and was picked up there by gripper arms on the launch tower. It was the first time SpaceX had attempted such a capture.

There had previously been a setback for tech billionaire Elon Musk's space company during the 15th test flight: the lower rocket stage was actually supposed to be picked up again by gripper arms on the launch tower, but that didn't work. The booster, called Super Heavy, returned to Earth shortly after launch, but crashed into the sea in a controlled manner and burst into flames.

SpaceX initially did not provide any information about the possible cause of the failure. In three previous test launches, the lower rocket stage had been successfully intercepted.

Starship had previously launched satellites

The upper rocket stage, called Starship, entered Earth orbit shortly after separating from the lower rocket stage and deployed satellites for Musk's Starlink Internet service. She then circled the earth several times.

The last test flight of the Starship took place in September. The largest rocket system ever built made it into Earth orbit for the first time and then crashed into the Pacific in a controlled ball of flames around three hours later.

Missile system is bigger than the Statue of Liberty

The Starship rocket system is huge, even larger than the Statue of Liberty in New York. It consists of two parts that separate after launch: the Super Heavy booster, which is approximately 70 meters long, and the upper stage - also called Starship - which measures around 50 meters. Both parts are designed to be reused after returning to Earth.

The rocket system was tested for the first time in April 2023 - but then it exploded completely after a few minutes. The further tests were met with varying degrees of success.

The US space agency Nasa wants to send astronauts to the moon with the Starship, while SpaceX also aims to reach Mars one day.