On October 13th, SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and its reusable booster Super Heavy launched from Boca Chica, Texas. In a world first, Super Heavy returned to the launch tower after separating from Starship and was caught by a pair of chopstick-like arms in a daring maneuver.

After the aborted catch attempt at the launch tower, the Super Heavy booster instead ended up splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico. The main Starship rocket is still on its way around the planet, set to attempt to splash down in the Indian Ocean in around 35 minutes.

Not all of the criteria for a booster catch was met and so the flight director did not command the booster to return to the launch site, said SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot. He did not