Tue Oct 15 04:45:40 UTC 2024: ## SpaceX Achieves Historic Booster Catch During Starship Test Flight

**Texas, October 13, 2024** – SpaceX achieved a major milestone in its Starship program on Sunday, successfully catching the Super Heavy booster in the first attempt to recapture it after launch. The event, part of the fifth Starship test flight, saw the booster successfully separate, perform a burn to return to Earth, and land softly in the metal arms of the catch tower, drawing cheers from SpaceX engineers.

The Starship itself also completed its planned trajectory before splashing down in the Indian Ocean. Though the company did not plan to recover the Starship vehicle, the entire mission lasted about 1 hour and 5 minutes.

This successful booster catch marks a significant step forward in SpaceX’s efforts to make its Starship rocket fully reusable. This ambition is further fueled by the company’s contracts to transport humans to the Moon for NASA.

The test flight followed the approval granted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday and, as of Monday, had not triggered an FAA mishap investigation.

**SpaceX Launches NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission on Falcon Heavy**

Just a day after the Starship test flight, SpaceX launched another significant mission: NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft from Florida on a Falcon Heavy rocket. This marked the second Falcon Heavy mission of 2024.

The Europa Clipper, the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission, lifted off at 12:06 p.m. ET on October 14 from Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. Mission control confirmed full signal acquisition from the spacecraft shortly after launch.

The spacecraft, with its 100-foot solar arrays, is now embarked on a 1.8 billion-mile journey to Jupiter, using gravity assists from Mars and Earth to reach its destination. Europa Clipper is not expected to reach Jupiter’s orbit until April 2030.

The mission’s primary goal is to study Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa. Scientists believe Europa could harbor habitable conditions beyond Earth due to the presence of water, chemistry, and energy. The spacecraft will gather data on the thickness of Europa’s icy shell, its interaction with the ocean below, its composition, and its geology.

“We could not be more excited for the incredible and unprecedented science NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will deliver in the generations to come,” stated Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. The mission’s scientific discoveries will build upon previous Jupiter missions, including Juno, Galileo, and Voyager, in the ongoing search for habitable worlds beyond Earth.

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