Video of SpaceX's miraculous launch and recovery of a giant rocket

The "Super Heavy" first-stage booster lifted off at 7:25 a.m. CT from SpaceX's Boca Chica, Texas, launch facility, sending the Starship second-stage rocket into space before separating at an altitude of about 43 miles (70 kilometers) to begin its return to Earth.

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The Super Heavy rocket re-ignited three of its 33 Raptor engines to slow its descent back to SpaceX’s launch site as it aimed for the launch pad and the tower it launched from. The tower, which stands more than 400 feet tall and is topped by two large metal arms, is taller than the Statue of Liberty.

With a roar of engines, the 71-meter-tall Super Heavy rocket dropped into the launch tower's wraparound arms, hooking itself into place by small rods protruding from beneath the four front mesh wings it used to steer its flight through the air.

“Tower caught the rocket!!” CEO Elon Musk wrote on X after the attempt to catch the rocket. SpaceX engineers watching the company’s livestream erupted in applause.

SpaceX's Super Heavy rocket successfully landed in Boca Chica, Texas, USA on October 13, 2024. Photo: Reuters

It's the latest step in SpaceX's long-fought effort to fully reuse its space launch rocket, which is designed to put more cargo into orbit, send humans to the Moon for NASA and eventually reach Mars.

Meanwhile, the Starship, the second stage or upper half of the rocket system, flew at about 17,000 miles per hour at an altitude of 89 miles in space, heading to the Indian Ocean near Western Australia to demonstrate the ability to make a controlled landing after about 90 minutes of flight.

SpaceX's livestream showed the rocket landing in the nighttime ocean off the coast of Australia, then tipping over, ending its test mission. A camera view from a ship near the landing site later showed the ship exploding into a large fireball. Musk said the ship landed "exactly on target!"

The Starship space launch system, first announced by Musk in 2017, has exploded multiple times at various stages of testing in the past, but successfully completed its first full flight in June.

Hoang Hai (according to SpaceX, Reuters, AFP)

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