In the summer of 2023, something happened that engineers had talked about for decades but few genuinely expected to see in their lifetimes. SpaceX’s Starship, a stainless steel tower taller than a 30-story building, lit its 33 engines simultaneously and lifted off from the Texas coast. It did not go entirely to plan. But it went. And when the Super Heavy booster returned in flight test five to be caught, midair, by the enormous mechanical arms of its own launch tower, it was clear that the rules of spaceflight had fundamentally changed.
