Oct. 14, 2024 5:23 pm EST VideoFromSpace/YouTube SpaceX had its fifth launch of its Starship on October 13 from its Starbase site in South Texas. The main objective of the mission was to test the Mechazilla launch tower, as it is called. The tower has two metal arms, or chopsticks, designed to catch the spacecraft's Super Heavy booster. Advertisement The chopsticks worked as intended. Approximately seven minutes post-liftoff the Super Heavy booster started hovering in the proximity of the Mechazilla launch tower and was then perfectly caught by the tower's chopstick arms. This was met with cheers from the SpaceX team, and probably millions of people around the world who witnessed live what might be one of the most important SpaceX missions of all time. "This is a day for the engineering history books," stated Kate Tice, SpaceX manager of Quality Systems Engineering, during a live broadcast from Space.com. "This is absolutely insane! On the first-ever attempt, we have successfully caught the Super Heavy booster back at the launch tower," Tice added. Advertisement Why was this such a significant feat, though? And why did SpaceX ditch landing gear for chopsticks? Here's what you need to know. Why is Mechazilla so important for SpaceX? VideoFromSpace/YouTube Elon Musk, the billionaire founder and CEO of SpaceX, spoke excitedly about Mechazilla when it was still being built, but warned that the probability of the mechanism working on the first try was low. "When the engines land ... it's gonna drop the velocity to basically zero and come in between the arms. The arms will be wide, and as it's coming in, the arms will close, go flush against the side of the vehicle, and the vehicle will be descending through the arms. The probability is uncertain, but it is above zero," he said at the time (via X). Advertisement As it turns out, Mechazilla's first real test was a success in more ways than one, as the 400-foot structure has the potential to change space travel forever. The fact that it can catch the booster midair and immediately position it back onto the launch mount could allow SpaceX to reuse it within a short time frame, thus increasing launch frequency and cutting costs.