Transport & space · 2024

Super Heavy booster catch

Mechanical tower arms catch a returning 70 m booster out of the air.

On 13 October 2024, on Starship Flight 5, the Super Heavy booster flew back to the launch tower and was caught by its 'chopstick' arms. Catching removes landing legs and allows fast turnaround. A caught booster was reflown in 2025.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

Starship flight tests 2023

What it led to 2

Permanent lunar base ~2035
Crewed Mars landing ~2038

Watch

Starship's Fifth Flight TestSpaceX · YouTube

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Objects launched into space Latest: 4.51k per year (2025) Source: Our World in Data

Payloads in low Earth orbit Latest: 14.5k objects (2025) Source: Our World in Data