SpaceX successfully catches Starship rocket in huge milestone for the space industry

By Emily Bary

The historic first gets SpaceX closer to 'rapid reusability' of rockets

"SpaceX is essentially 10 years ahead of its competitors," Bernstein analysts wrote on Friday.

SpaceX achieved a major feat on Saturday as it caught the upper stage of its Starship rocket for the first time.

The historic move gets SpaceX (SPCX) closer to its ambition of "rapid reusability" within its rocket-launch business, something that analysts say is key to pulling off lots of future launches in an economical way.

Starship went into orbit on Friday, and the company had been planning to attempt two catches: one of the rocket's booster and one of its upper stage. It ended up aborting plans to catch its Super Heavy Booster, which instead splashed down into the ocean. SpaceX had already shown an ability to catch the booster in the past flights.

After Starship was in orbit for nearly a day, the company announced Saturday afternoon that it successfully caught the upper stage. SpaceX congratulated its team on the "incredible achievement" in a post on X.

"Full reusability is the key to performing high launch rates and lower costs to orbit, which are central to plans for a network of orbital data centers," Bernstein analysts wrote in a note to clients on Friday, ahead of the Starship launch.

CEO Elon Musk has expressed a desire to put data centers in space, and the Bernstein team thinks "there are no fundamental physics or engineering barriers preventing orbital data centers." Instead, "the critical question is the pace at which SpaceX can place capacity into orbit."

Furthermore, demonstrating "the reusability of Starship" is the "most important step for SpaceX to support a multitrillion-dollar valuation," the analysts noted.

Citi analysts had written in a Thursday note that "a 100% reusable rocket is viewed in the industry as the 'holy grail' of rocketry."

Space-technology rivals aren't anywhere close to SpaceX, noted the Bernstein team. The company "demonstrated reuse on its Falcon 9 in 2016," they wrote, whereas China first showed the ability to catch a booster on an ocean platform earlier this year.

"SpaceX is essentially 10 years ahead of its competitors," the analysts added.

Don't miss: China is chasing SpaceX and setting its sights on the global space economy

-Emily Bary

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-14-26 1834ET