SpaceX and its founder and CEO Elon Musk are celebrating Sunday morning as the company scored a huge victory with its successful "catch" of a Starship rocket booster with giant mechanical arms on the launch pad. 

Towering almost 400 feet (121 meters), the empty Starship blasted off at sunrise from the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border. It arced over the Gulf of Mexico like the four Starships before it that ended up being destroyed, either soon after liftoff or while ditching into the sea. The last one in June was the most successful yet, completing its flight without exploding.

This time, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk upped the challenge and risk. The company brought the first-stage booster back to land at the pad from which it had soared seven minutes earlier. The launch tower sported monstrous metal arms, dubbed chopsticks, that caught the descending 232-foot (71-meter) booster.

Musk described the endeavor on X/Twitter ahead of its Sunday morning go time, likening the maneuver to Mr. Miyagi's infamous chopsticks fly catch from "The Karate Kid." (And once again emphasizing his own Gen-Xness.) 

Looks like Starship might fly on Sunday!

This the largest & most powerful flying object ever made at more than double the thrust of the Saturn V Moon rocket.

We will try to catch it upon return to launch site using the Mechazilla arms like giant chopsticks (like Karate Kid)! https://t.co/8g7mLaTCRK

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 11, 2024

Looks like Starship might fly on Sunday!

This the largest & most powerful flying object ever made at more than double the thrust of the Saturn V Moon rocket. 

We will try to catch it upon return to launch site using the Mechazilla arms like giant chopsticks (like Karate Kid)!

This isn't the first first-stage booster recovery for a SpaceX craft, but it's the first of this nature. 

SpaceX has been recovering the first-stage boosters of its smaller Falcon 9 rockets for nine years, after delivering satellites and crews to orbit from Florida or California. But they land on floating ocean platforms or on concrete slabs several miles from their launch pads — not on them.

Recycling Falcon boosters has sped up the launch rate and saved SpaceX millions. Musk intends to do the same for Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built with 33 methane-fuel engines on the booster alone. NASA has ordered two Starships to land astronauts on the moon later this decade. SpaceX intends to use Starship to send people and supplies to the moon and, eventually Mars.

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SpaceX live-streamed the event on its X/Twitter account. This is pretty amazing to watch (and listen to):

Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster! pic.twitter.com/6R5YatSVJX

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2024

The elated cheers from the SpaceX employees roared as the booster returned. 

Elon's brother, Kimbal, also shared video of the successful catch on his X/Twitter account. (Language warning for this one.) 

Booster starts in top right corner. Watch to the end. Sound on pic.twitter.com/jS70tHLNcr

— 𝙺𝚒𝚖𝚋𝚊𝚕 𝙼𝚞𝚜𝚔 🤠 (@kimbal) October 13, 2024

Following the catch, Elon touted the success, sharing a 2011 interview with the Wall Street Journal:

Big step towards making life multiplanetary was made today https://t.co/dwE5MExToI

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 13, 2024

"I just think that a future where humanity is a space-faring civilization, out there, exploring the stars, is an incredibly exciting future and inspiring. And so, that's what we're trying to help make happen. I really want SpaceX to help make life multi-planetary. I'd like to see a self-sustaining base on Mars."

Kudos to Musk and the team at SpaceX.