About 16 months ago I wrote about the “rapid unplanned disassembly” of the Starship spacecraft by Space-X. What you and I would call an explosion, Space-X calls a “rapid unplanned disassembly” which they use to gather data to move their program along. Space-X has a culture of “embracing fiery mishaps.” It works for them.

This past Sunday, October 13, Space-X not only successfully launched Starship, it caught the 200-foot-tall booster so it can be reused! Here’s the opening of a Wall Street Journal report:

SpaceX caught a towering booster rocket back at its launchpad in south Texas, an engineering milestone for the Starship vehicle at the center of Elon Musk’s plans for deep-space exploration. 

The Super Heavy booster, the first stage of Starship, lifted off from south Texas on Sunday morning and propelled the Starship craft into space. Shortly after the launch, SpaceX made the call to return the booster back to the pad from which it had launched.

A livestream from SpaceX showed the device zipping back toward the facility, and, as it approached a tower, its engines slowed the enormous device down, allowing for the catch around 8:30 a.m. ET. The vehicle latched down on mechanical arms sticking out of the tower. – Micah Maidenberg, WSJ, October 13, 2024 (The article may contain a video of the launch and recovery. If not, click here.)

A skyscraper went into space, returned to earth, and parallel parked. – Sylvia Smith, shared by Mark Ewell

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. (Luke 18.1, ESV)