The 233-foot-long booster was caught by giant "chop-stick" arms during landing. This technical breakthrough on a rocket eventually headed to Mars demonstrated that it can be used over and over, like a jetliner.

SpaceX in its fifth Starship test flight on Sunday returned the rocket's towering first stage booster back to its Texas launch pad for the first time using giant mechanical arms, achieving another novel engineering feat in the company's push to build a reusable moon and Mars vehicle.