SpaceX has caught the upper stage of Starship after launch for the first time, extending a recovery maneuver it had previously shown only on the rocket's first stage.
Starship has two parts. Super Heavy is the booster, and the Ship is the upper stage that sits on top of it. SpaceX has caught Super Heavy boosters a few times already. The Ship had never been caught until now.
That is a meaningful distinction for a company built around reuse. A vehicle that is caught can, in principle, fly again, while one that is lost cannot. Even SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 still discards its upper stage after every flight, so a recoverable Ship would set Starship apart from the company's own current rocket.
One catch does not make a routine, though. The booster went from a novelty to something SpaceX has now done several times, and the Ship has to follow the same path from a single success to a repeatable one.