SpaceX planned to use the same return-flight and “chopstick”-arm technology to recover Starship’s lower-stage booster rocket, but the maneuver was aborted shortly after launch.

The original goal was to retrieve every single piece of the rocket for the purpose of future recycling, something yet to be achieved anywhere in the world.

SpaceX is launching Starship into orbit on its boldest test yet, a 22-hour flight that aims to recapture the entire rocket at the Texas pad

SpaceX launched the 15th uncrewed flight of its next-generation Starship spacecraft from Texas. The company hopes the mission will be the first round-trip rocket voyage to orbit and then back to the very spot where it left Earth.