SpaceX scores major successes with fifth test flight of its new rocket and spacecraft system

US space company SpaceX successfully executed an unprecedented achievement on Sunday. For the first time, a launch rocket (booster) successfully returned to its launch pad, after separating from the second stage. Not only that, but the booster was successfully seized by metal arms mounted on the launch tower, so that it did not touch the ground, thereby eliminating the risk of a hard landing. The booster concerned was the company’s new Super Heavy, the most powerful rocket ever developed. It is intended to launch the company’s equally new crewed spacecraft, the Starship, and other very heavy payloads, to make possible the human colonisation of the Moon and perhaps even Mars.