Ship 42 came home from orbit Saturday afternoon and settled into the launch tower’s mechanical arms at Starbase in South Texas, the first time any company has caught an orbital rocket’s upper stage on its return. The catch closed a flight that had started the day before with a partial setback, as the Super Heavy booster below it aborted its own recovery and ended in the Gulf of Mexico. SpaceX had already caught earlier boosters on three prior tests, yet the upper stage had never been recovered this way after circling the planet.
