A SpaceX launch tower, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty, successfully caught a giant rocket booster after it detached from the Starship rockets 42 miles above.
Elon Musk wants SpaceX to be the first company to build a reusable spaceship and rocket, with the goal of ferrying people to the moon and Mars. The successful catch of the booster, on first attempt, is a major breakthrough toward that goal.
The launch tower, taller than the Statue of Liberty at over 400 feet, is fitted with two large metal arms at the top. With its engines roaring, the 233-foot-tall Super Heavy booster fell, from an altitude of 42 miles, into the launch tower’s enclosing arms, hooking itself in place by tiny, protruding bars under the four forward grid fins it had used to steer itself through the air.
