Elon Musk SpaceX pulls off unprecedented feat! Grabs descending rocket w/mechanical arms

In one of the most dramatic, high-risk space flights to date, SpaceX launched a gargantuan Super Heavy-Starship rocket on an unpiloted test flight Sunday and then used giant "mechazilla" mechanical arms on the pad gantry to pluck the descending first stage out of the sky in an unprecedented feat of engineering.

But the jaw-dropping first stage capture back at the launch pad, using pincer-like arms more familiarly known as chopsticks, was the clear highlight of the giant rocket's fifth test flight.

Snagging the descending 23-story-tall Super Heavy booster with the mechazilla arms represented an unprecedented milestone in SpaceX's drive to develop fully reusable, quickly re-launchable rockets, a technological tour de force unmatched in the history of earlier space programs relying on expendable, throw-away rockets.

"Big step towards making life multiplanetary was made today," SpaceX founder Elon Musk said on his social media platform X.

The 397-foot-tall rocket blasted off from SpaceX's Boca Chica, Texas, flight facility on the Texas Gulf Coast at 8:25 a.m. EDT, putting on a spectacular sunrise show as the booster's 33 methane-burning Raptor engines ignited with a ground-shaking roar and a torrent of flaming exhaust.