SpaceX Successfully Catches ‘Super Heavy’ Booster Back at Launch Pad | WSJ News

It was SpaceX’s first attempt to catch a booster back at its launch pad after propelling a craft into space. Photo: Kaylee Greenlee Beal/Reuters

#WSJ #SpaceX #starship

[andromedach]

SpaceX keeps making history and bringing science fiction closer to reality every day.

[thGenNativeTexan]

I was standing in front of the monitor.. yelling.. cheering... admittedly a bit teary-eyed. Probably one of the most significant moments in recent aerospace history.

[weaverjoshuab]

People don’t understand how HUGE that thing is, and the seemingly impossibility of this

[dewayneblue]

Starship is absolutely gargantuan, and by far the most powerful rocket ever built.
The fact that its huge, 240 foot tall first stage, can be gently caught for re-use, has mind-boggling implications for the economics of space flight.

[johnhmielewski]

This achieved technology just increased Space x valuation by the tens of billions.

[arnoldsmith]

its like catching a skyscraper the largest rocket ever made

[bill]

Even more amazing than the first time SpaceX landed a booster on legs🥳🎉

[jivescript]

the noise of the engineers shouting and applauding give me chills. someday people won’t bother to think of a time that it wasn’t possible. good for Space X. Good for US/us.

[pixelwash]

The stark simplicity of the basic idea of having a massive rocket return directly to its launcher after it lifting an equally massive rocket into space is brought into focus by Musk's analogy he made with a jumbo jet: imagine if you had to throw away the aircraft every time it flew anywhere. Re-usable transport vehicles, what a concept! Shows how mind blowingly arcane and backward all one-shot rockets have become, we just witnessed the real dawn of a space age that will likely affect humanity in ways we don't fully realize yet.

[Foolofatook]

That’s a freaking skyscraper they just retrieved! MOON BASE NOW!

[CalIrons-wrxy]

Stuff like this makes me so proud of our wonderful species. Human accomplishment is remarkable

[eligebrown]

😮😮😮 im 50 and thats THE coolest booster landing ive ever seen. Great job space X

[nerdslikeus]

0:50 when you say "it was the company's first attempt to retrieve a booster back" you need to be more specific. They recover boosters all the time. This is the company's first attempt to retrieve a starship booster. You could have also said, this is the company's first attempt to land a booster back on the launch tower.

[kevinrussi]

CONGRATS to the entire SpaceX team!!

@WSJ: your comments/subtitles are imprecise: SpaceX has been landing rocket boosters (1st stages) for a LONG time, hundreds of successful landings in the books!

Today was a massive NEXT step by having the rocket return directly to the launch pad & the launch tower catch the booster during landing.

This was AMAZING, INSPIRING & F#*IN CRAZY!! History was written today.

[SunnnyDay]

A crowning achievement, simply amazing !!!

[sangmoon]

One of the major things this means is that reusable large payload launches become exponentially cheaper making colonizing the Moon and Mars so much cheaper and likely to happen within our lifetime. We are going to see Starship used for all kinds of ideas that were considered too expensive before like a hotel in space or a true rotating ring shaped space station with its own pseudo gravity. We are going to see mining in space bringing more riches than the entire planet Earth has now. We may have just witnessed the beginning of the explosion of the human race into the universe.

[SG-wikd]

Truly amazing. The technological challenge cannot be fully appreciated. Bravo!

[barttrahan]

You know, hate him or love him, THAT was freaking incredible! No one else on this planet can do the things Elon does, or even consider them for that matter! "Yeah, we're gonna launch a rocket into space, then catch the booster with a giant set of chopsticks!" Everyone else, "Say what?"

[DiamondsAndLace]

It woke me up early this Sunday, the house was shaking and the windows rattled loudly.

[marlonmendes]

This gave me goosebumps and made me proud as a human being for our achievements and development. I’m amazed and happy.