SpaceX’s quest for rapid reusability is a step closer as the company successfully caught the Starship rocket booster for the first time as it returned to Earth after launch.

The 400-foot-tall uncrewed Starship rocket was launched for the fifth time yesterday (13 October) from its Starbase site in south Texas at 7.25am local time.

The mission was to break new ground for Starship: rather than have its first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, land in the ocean, as is typical, it returned directly to its launch mount.

Three minutes and 40 seconds after lift-off, Super Heavy separated, turned and reignited 13 Raptors (SpaceX-designed rocket engines) to head back toward the Texas launchpad.

SpaceX then slowed the booster as it approached the mount, and a pair of huge mechanical arms reached out from the launch tower to bring it to a halt.

As the BBC reported in its live streaming of the historic manoeuvre: “It was another record-breaking day for the team at SpaceX. Its engineers achieved something...