SpaceX Starship’s fifth flight test 'catches' Super Heavy booster

Starship splashed down in Indian Ocean at around 9:30am EDT, right after an hour of its launch
SpaceXs Starship lifts off, Boca Chica, Texas, October 13, 2024. — REUTERS
SpaceX's Starship lifts off, Boca Chica, Texas, October 13, 2024. — REUTERS

SpaceX lifted off Starship’s fifth flight test at about 8:25am ET from its South Texas launch site. SpaceX created history after it "caught" the Starship “Super Heavy booster”, using mechanical arms on the launch tower that SpaceX denoted as the “chopsticks.”

The Starship splashed down in the Indian Ocean at around 9:30am EDT, right after an hour of its launch. 

Read more: Watch live — SpaceX's historic Starship Flight 5 launch

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), SpaceX said that the major focuses for the launch were “to catch the Super Heavy booster and another Starship reentry and landing burn, aiming for an on-target splashdown of Starship in the Indian Ocean” along with a wider aim to “revolutioniz(ing) humanity’s ability to access space.”

The Starship is supposedly an adequately reusable system which is capable of taking both cargo as well as people to travel the space. 

After a successful return of the Starship's fifth flight test, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted on X and said: “Big step towards making life multiplanetary was made today.”