SpaceX’s Starship Makes History With First-Ever Mechazilla Catch — Musk, Hegseth and Trump Jr. React

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) caught its Starship upper stage, Ship 42, with launch tower arms at Starbase on Saturday, the first time the vehicle returned from orbit and was recovered at its launch site.

Washington and Silicon Valley applaud the feat

CEO Elon Musk posted on X, "I hugged ship 42 upon its return."

I hugged ship 42 upon its return

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2026

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on X the catch was "almost magic," adding that SpaceX is "making more believers by the day."

Congrats to @elonmusk and the @SpaceX team! It was almost magic..Making more believers by the day….one step closer to 🌖🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/PYs9yNQMdg

— NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (@NASAAdmin) November 14, 2026

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called Musk "a great American" on X.

Congrats @elonmusk — a great American. Keep leading the frontier… https://t.co/jUPUdOeuao

— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) November 14, 2026

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) praised "an amazing feat of engineering."

Congratulations to SpaceX for making history with an amazing feat of engineering! https://t.co/qQVIZWtLUf

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) November 14, 2026

Donald Trump Jr. called it "an incredible accomplishment."

What an incredible accomplishment! Congratulations to @elonmusk and the entire @SpaceX team. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 https://t.co/ZnpWoejlbJ

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 14, 2026

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) CEO Sundar Pichai also wrote on X that the catch "still feels like science fiction."

Congrats @SpaceX for that starship catch, still feels like science fiction! Watching it live was incredible. Upwards!

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) November 14, 2026

Ship 42 orbited Earth 14 times over about 22.5 hours and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites. The successful catch marks a major step toward SpaceX’s goal of making Starship fully reusable.

The first-stage Super Heavy booster failed to return to the launch tower after Friday’s liftoff, diverting to an offshore splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, where it was destroyed. The failure prevented SpaceX from completing its planned double catch.

SpaceX has a market capitalization of $1.89 trillion. Its share price has ranged from a 52-week low of $104.83 to a high of $225.64.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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