SpaceX catches a Starship upper stage with its tower arms for the first time, after losing the booster

SpaceX caught the upper stage of its Starship rocket on the launch tower Saturday, the first time a Starship ship has been recovered that way, CNBC reported. The ship flew around Earth 14 times after Friday's launch and then landed on the mechanical arms, nicknamed the chopsticks, at the Starbase, Texas, tower the company calls Mechazilla.

What CNBC reported, and what we have not confirmed

• The catch: CNBC called it a historic milestone and said the ship was caught "from orbit" by the tower arms.
• The booster: On Friday SpaceX called off the booster catch, and the Super Heavy stage splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, where it exploded before hitting the water, per CNBC. We covered that in our launch-night story. Flight 15 was the first to attempt catching both stages.
• The satellites: The ship released 26 Starlink V3 satellites on Friday, CNBC said, adding to a constellation of more than 11,000 in low Earth orbit.
• Not yet confirmed by us: BBC News had not updated its page with the result when we checked, and we found no SpaceX or FAA statement on the ship's condition after the catch or on any review of the lost booster. This story rests on CNBC's report and will be updated.

Why it matters for the business

Catching the ship is the harder half of the reuse plan. The booster has been caught on three earlier flights, BBC News noted, but the upper stage only reached orbit for the first time in September. A ship that returns intact to the tower can, in principle, be refueled and flown again without a sea or ground recovery. CNBC said Starship is key to growing Starlink, which it described as the company's profit center, and that one Starship can carry up to 60 Starlink V3 satellites, according to SpaceX.

It also bears on NASA's schedule: CNBC said SpaceX is expected to use Starship to move astronauts and cargo between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface. One caught ship does not prove routine reuse. The lost booster means the double catch the company wanted did not happen, and the next flight date has not been announced in anything we read.

The stock

SpaceX (Nasdaq: SPCX) closed Friday at $139.11, down 0.59%, according to Nasdaq.com, above the $135 IPO price. That is about 19.1% below its Oct. 6 peak on our chart. US markets are closed for the weekend, so the first trading reaction to the catch will come Monday. We are not predicting it.

Flight 14, which put the ship in orbit for the first time, is in our earlier story.

Sources: CNBC; BBC News; quote data from Nasdaq.com. Details may change as SpaceX and regulators comment. This is market information, not investment advice.