A SpaceX rocket has returned to its launch pad in Texas.
After orbiting Earth a dozen times, it returned and was secured to the launching pad by mechanical arms in a world-first.
It is the next step in Elon Musk's effort to develop a fully reusable rocket.
A SpaceX rocket has returned to Earth after its longest flight in orbit yet to the facilities it was launched from, marking the first-ever recovery of a spaceship and in a key milestone for rocket reusability.
SpaceX Starship 42 launched from the company's Texas facilities on Friday, local time.
After deploying 26 Starlink satellites in orbit, it fired one of its engines to begin an atmospheric plunge.
It faced blistering heat as its orbital speed of some 27,000 kilometres per hour slowed to a supersonic freefall in the skies above the Texas facilities.
The spacecraft then reignited three engines to flip itself in a vertical position and steer itself toward the launch tower, where two mechanical "chopstick" arms clasped onto the spacecraft as it hovered in place.
The towering two-stage rocket's Super Heavy booster, the rocket's bottom half, carried Starship to space.
That booster had failed to make a similar return to the launch pad some 10 minutes after lift-off, but the Starship upper stage's successful return after orbiting Earth 14 times for…
