The booster got stuck in the mechanical arm

“Thanks to the tireless work of SpaceX engineers, we succeeded in catching it on the first try,” the company said.

SpaceX successfully launched its fifth test launch of the Starship and Super Heavy Rocket on Sunday at the SpaceX Starbase in Boca Chica, near Brownsville, Texas.

“Starship's fifth flight test launched on October 13, 2024, with our most ambitious test goals yet as we work to demonstrate techniques fundamental to the fully and rapidly reusable design of Starship and Super Heavy,” SpaceX said in a statement.

This test launch received last-minute approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, which had originally expected launch in November.

The rocket and ship are collectively called a “spaceship” and stand nearly 400 feet tall. The ship is a reusable transport system designed to transport cargo and crew to Earth orbit, the Moon and Mars.

What was tested?

SpaceX has been testing whether it can capture the rocket's booster as it returns to Earth.

Mechazilla, a chopstick arm attached to a tower, is key to the reusable design. It was designed to catch the launchers and did exactly that on the first attempt on Sunday.

“Thousands of different vehicle and pad criteria had to be met before the capture attempt, and thanks to the tireless work of SpaceX engineers, we achieved the capture on the first attempt,” SpaceX said on its website.

The success comes after the first three test launches ended in explosions before successfully landing in the Indian Ocean in June.

What you should know about Starship

SpaceX has spent years developing and testing the Starship, which is expected to play an integral role as early as 2026 when US astronauts return to the moon.

As part of NASA's ambitious Artemis campaign, the space agency's first lunar program since the Apollo era in the 1970s, SpaceX received a whopping $2.9 billion to develop a spacecraft that would carry astronauts safely from orbit to the lunar surface can.

The goal of NASA's Artemis program is to build a lunar settlement at the South Pole in the coming years. One day, the water ice, which is believed to be abundant in the region, could be mined and used for drinking, breathing and as a source of hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel to enable manned trips to Mars – like the one Musk is taking already planned as 2028.

Starship's first manned test flight is planned for the third and final mission under the Polaris program, which SpaceX is co-funding with billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman. The first spaceflight of the Polaris Dawn program last month included the first commercial spacewalk with crew aboard a Dragon capsule.

The 165-foot-long Starship spacecraft, which has previously only undergone unmanned demonstrations, managed to land in the Indian Ocean in its most recent demonstration in June, while the 232-foot-long rocket booster landed off the Gulf of Mexico.

While the previous three tests ended in explosions, SpaceX officials say the spacecraft's performance has improved with each demonstration they have conducted with the vehicle. That included the third demonstration in March, when SpaceX said Starship had reached several key milestones and conducted a handful of flight tests that represented a critical step forward in its reliability and functionality.

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and breaking news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]

Julia is a trends reporter for USA TODAY. You can connect with her LinkedInkeep following her X, formerly Twitter, Instagram And TikTok: @juliamariegz, or email her at [email protected]

What was tested?

What you should know about Starship

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