The 15th test flight had been planned as a double-catch mission. All parts of the rocket were to return intact to the launch site, rather than be recovered from the ocean as on some earlier tests.
The result is a step toward the rapid reuse Elon Musk has sought for Starship. He wants the rocket to land and take off much like a standard airplane.
SpaceX caught the upper stage of its Starship rocket at the launch tower this week, the first time the company has retrieved that part of the vehicle after flight.
The 171ft (52-meter) bullet-shaped stage descended into the clutch of the tower's mechanical arms. The catch ended a 22-hour mission in which the craft orbited Earth 14 times.
Musk has touted that reusability as a way to reel in the enormous costs of space travel.
Catching the upper stage still counted as a victory for SpaceX. It was the first time the company had done so.
The booster was also"slightly low on fuel", SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk said.
It was only the second time Starship has entered Earth's orbit.
During the flight the spacecraft deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites. Starship's advances have also aided the expansion of Musk's satellite internet business.
Musk said on a recent earnings call that SpaceX plans to ramp up Starship test flights to a weekly cadence, then to twice a week.
The feat comes as 2028 nears, the date Nasa has set for a plan to return humans to the lunar surface.
The agency has contracted SpaceX and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin for that mission.