The stainless steel, bullet-shaped upper stage lowered itself upright into the arms, known as "chopsticks," marking the first-ever capture of a Starship returning from space. The dramatic maneuver, reminiscent of science fiction, came after the spacecraft completed 14 orbits of Earth at an altitude of 165 miles and released 26 advanced Starlink satellites.

"Can you believe it?" shouted SpaceX commentator Dan Huot during the live broadcast.

However, the triumph was tempered by the failure of the first-stage booster, which exploded shortly after Friday's liftoff. According to SpaceX's Kate Tice, the booster's engines stopped firing too soon during its descent. The guidance system detected it was out of position and automatically initiated a watery detour and self-destruction. Wreckage remained in the Gulf of Mexico, cordoned off by buoys, as engineers continue to investigate the cause.

Despite the booster loss, SpaceX officials said Saturday's catch demonstrates the full reusability of Starship, a key goal for the vehicle intended for moon and Mars travel. The company had already successfully caught the booster three previous times, validating the technique.

The 407-foot (124-meter) rocket, the world's largest and most powerful, blasted off late Friday afternoon from the Starbase site near the U.S.-Mexican border. The upper stage separated cleanly from its booster before the anomaly occurred, soaring into orbit and completing its mission. SpaceX reported that everything on the spacecraft, including its vital heat shield, appeared to work well.

NASA welcomed the 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. SpaceX expects to begin launching Starships from Florida's Kennedy Space Center within the next few months, the starting point for NASA's next Artemis mission, which will remain in orbit around Earth for lunar lander practice.

Artemis III's four astronauts will attempt to dock their capsule with both Starship and Blue Origin's 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's first moon landing since the Apollo era more than half a century ago.

Elon Musk's ambitions extend beyond the moon: he wants to launch a fleet of Starships to build a city on Mars. Saturday's successful catch brings that vision one step closer, even as the booster failure underscores the challenges of rapid reusability.

It was SpaceX's 15th flight of a full-scale Starship since 2023 and its second trip to orbit. The mission's 14 laps around Earth far exceeded the previous mission's one to two laps, signaling steady progress in the vehicle's capabilities.