For the first time in the history of astronautics: SpaceX was able to land a Super Heavy carrier on the launch pad after launch. Video

For the first time in history, the Super Heavy upper stage of the comic rocket Starship managed to return to the launch pad. This event took place on October 13, when Elon Musk's SpaceX company organized the fifth test flight of the Starship into orbit.

The launch took place at the Starbase site in Boca Chica (southeast of the US state of Texas). A video was posted on Musk's X (Twitter) page.

Usually, rocket boosters after separation from the ship, which continues to fly, are uncontrollable and fall to the surface - most often into the ocean.

Starship is an ultra-heavy reusable two-stage launch vehicle with a height of almost 122 meters and a diameter of 9 meters. It was conceived for manned missions to the Moon and Mars. Its upper stage is actually the Starship; the lower stage is the Super Heavy booster.

The Super Heavy is equipped with 33 Raptor rocket engines, making it the most powerful accelerator in existence.

The upper stage managed to successfully climb to altitude, activate the engine, and disengage. Then it was successfully returned to the launch site for the first time using the Mechazilla system.

"SpaceX engineers have spent years preparing and months testing the accelerator capture attempt, and technicians have spent tens of thousands of hours building the infrastructure to maximize our chances of success. We make no compromises when it comes to ensuring the safety of the public and our team," the company's press service wrote in a mission overview, noting that they would activate the Super Heavy's recovery mechanism only under favorable conditions.

As a reminder, Starship, the largest space rocket in the world, has been launched four times before, but only two flights (in March and June of this year) were recognized as successful.

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