The Starship IFT-5 launch and the Booster 12 return shown as a movie

With the help of SpaceX, the space race has entered a realm that seems straight out of a science-fiction movie.

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In December 2015, SpaceX achieved a milestone with the Falcon 9, becoming the first space rocket to return to Earth by landing propulsively, that is, with the boost of its engine, instead of landing like an airplane (as NASA's space shuttles did) or falling into the sea to be recovered (as many solid rocket boosters from different space agencies have done). That was an almost magical moment in the space race, achieving something we had only seen in the movies.

Eleven days ago, SpaceX launched its Starship IFT-5 mission, the fifth test flight of its Starship launch vehicle, consisting of a huge Super Heavy rocket with a first stage called Booster 12, equipped with 33 Raptor engines. If until now we had seen something as difficult as landing a rocket propulsively, this time the challenge was even greater: getting the rocket back to a launch tower, the Mechazilla, whose mechanical arms caught the Booster 12.

The launch took place from SpaceX Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, specifically from its Orbital Launch Pad A (OLP-A), on October 13 at 12:25 UTC. Booster 12 returned to the same launch pad that same day at 13:30 UTC, achieving a new milestone in the space race: the first propulsive landing on a launch pad. Something like this deserves to be shown as if it were a movie, and that is what the channel Planum has done, using two soundtrack tracks from the excellent film "Interstellar" (2014), composed by Hans Zimmer:

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Photos: SpaceX.