SpaceX rocket booster makes successful landing after test launch – as it is caught by ‘chopsticks’
A SpaceX booster rocket has returned to earth and been caught by giant robotic arms – following a successful launch of the company’s Starship spacecraft.
It was the first attempt to bring the rocket’s 232-foot (71 metre) Super Heavy booster back to the launch tower by re-igniting three of its 33 Raptor engines to slow its speedy descent.
After separating from the Starship at a height of 46 miles (74km), it returned to Boca Chica in Texas, seven minutes after launch, where it was grabbed and clamped in place using what are described as “chopsticks”.
Arguably, they look more like metal arms, or giant pincers.
The catching of the booster was not guaranteed to go ahead. Both it and the launch tower had to be in good, stable conditions, SpaceX said.
But it settled into position in what appeared to be a calm, controlled manner.
The Super Heavy on its way back down. Pic: AP
The booster rocket clamped back in place by the ‘chopsticks’. Pic: SpaceX
SpaceX tweeted that “Mechazilla” had caught the “Super Heavy booster!”
“Are you kidding me?” SpaceX’s Dan Huot said close to the launch site. “I am shaking right now.”
“This is a day for the engineering history books,” added SpaceX’s Kate Tice.
SpaceX owner Elon Musk said on X, which he also owns: “The tower has caught the rocket!!”
Space journalist Kate Arkless Gray said the booster was still travelling at a supersonic speed less than a minute before landing.
“The deceleration involved in that is wild,” she told Sky News.
She added: “SpaceX have really, really innovated. Even just a few years ago, the idea of bringing a booster back to land or a barge in the sea – no one was doing that.”
It’s the Starship’s fifth test flight. Pic: AP
The Starship, meanwhile, landed in the Indian Ocean, west of Australia, following its fifth test flight from a launch pad on the border with Mexico.
“Splashdown confirmed!”, SpaceX said on social media.
Starship and Super Heavy are designed to carry crew and cargo to the moon and beyond – and be reusable.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved the launch only yesterday, weeks earlier than expected.
Previously, the FAA said a decision on Starship 5 was not expected until late November.
But it said Elon Musk’s company had “met all safety, environmental and other licensing requirements for the suborbital test flight”.
It has also approved the Starship 6 mission profile.
The Starship lifted off from Boca Chica in Texas. Pic: AP
Musk has heavily criticised the FAA – partly over the delay in approving the licence for Starship 5, which SpaceX said was ready in August.
SpaceX describes Starship as the world’s “most powerful launch vehicle ever developed”, capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes.
First unveiled in 2017, it has exploded several times in various stages of testing.
In June, it successfully completed a full flight for the first time.
US
Matt Gaetz: Ex-Trump attorney general pick paid women for sex, including with a 17-year-old girl, US House report says
Matt Gaetz, who was briefly Donald Trump’s nominee for US attorney general, paid women for sex, including with a 17-year-old girl, and used drugs while he was a member of Congress, a committee has said.
The House Ethics Committee’s report concluded there was “substantial evidence” that the former Florida congressman violated House rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct banning prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, and obstruction of Congress.
And the committee accused the 42-year-old of accepting gifts of luxury travel in excess of permissible limits with a trip to the Bahamas in 2018.
The House of Representatives panel wrote: “From 2017 to 2020, Representative Gaetz made tens of thousands of dollars in payments to women that the Committee determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and/or drug use.”
The Republican, who denies any wrongdoing, had sought a restraining order against the committee in a bid to halt the release of its report summarising its investigation.
The filing accused the committee of an “unconstitutional” attempt “to exercise jurisdiction over a private citizen through the threatened release of an investigative report containing potentially defamatory allegations, in violation of the committee’s own rules”.
Last month, Trump ally Mr Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration to be the next US attorney general – the country’s top legal official.
Mr Gaetz said his selection was “unfairly becoming a distraction” to the transition of Mr Trump’s administration into the White House.
Donald Trump and Matt Gaetz in August 2023. Pic: Reuters
The Florida Republican had faced scrutiny over previous sex trafficking allegations which were investigated by the department he had been picked by the president-elect to lead.
Mr Gaetz was re-elected to the House of Representatives in November this year but resigned after Mr Trump nominated him as attorney general.
The 37-page House report said: “From at least 2017 to 2020, Representative Gaetz regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him.
“In 2017, Representative Gaetz engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl. During the period 2017 to 2019, Representative Gaetz used or possessed illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, on multiple occasions.”
‘Sex with 17-year-old girl’
The ethics panel received testimony that Mr Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl, described in the report as Victim A.
It said: “Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex.
“Victim A said that she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask her age.”
Mr Gaetz was investigated by the Justice Department for three years over sex trafficking allegations. No criminal charges were brought.
The ethics panel said there was not enough evidence that Mr Gaetz violated the federal sex trafficking statute.
All of the women who testified said the sexual encounters with Mr Gaetz were consensual.
‘I feel violated’
However, one woman told the committee that the use of drugs at the parties and events they attended may have “impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent”.
Another woman told the committee: “When I look back on certain moments, I feel violated.”
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