Mike Wall & SPACE.com at Scientific American report that SpaceX’s fifth Starship flight test concluded with mechanical arms snatching the descending rocket booster out of the air. They write:
The biggest and most powerful rocket ever built took to the skies again. And this time, it came back.
SpaceX launched its 400-foot-tall (122 meters) Starship vehicle for the fifth time ever today (Oct. 13), sending the giant rocket aloft from its Starbase site in South Texas at 8:25 am. EDT (1225 GMT; 7:25 a.m. local Texas time). […]
The mission aimed to break new ground for Starship, and for spaceflight in general: SpaceX planned to return Starship’s huge first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, directly to its launch mount, catching it with the “chopstick” arms of the launch tower in a bold and unprecedented maneuver. […]
SpaceX is developing Starship to help humanity settle the moon and Mars, among other exploration feats. The vehicle is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable (as evidenced by the Super Heavy launch-mount landing plan, which will slash the time needed between flights). This characteristic, combined with Starship’s unprecedented power, could revolutionize spaceflight, according to the company and Musk. […]
Starship Has 33 Raptor Engines
And it’s safe to assume that SpaceX wants to launch another Starship mission relatively soon. Last month, SpaceX conducted a static fire — a common prelaunch test in which a rocket’s engines are fired while it remains anchored to the ground — with the Flight 6 Ship vehicle.
And there will be more test missions coming after that; SpaceX always has a few Starships in the queue, and it’s always itching to fly.
Read more here.