SpaceX is set to attempt a feat never before achieved in rocketry: recovering both stages of its Starship vehicle on the same flight. The 15th test flight, scheduled for Friday, November 13, 2026, from Starbase, Texas, will try to catch the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage using the mechanical arms of the launch tower. The launch window opens at 22:45 GMT and lasts 75 minutes.
- Double catch attempt: SpaceX will try to recover both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage with the launch tower’s arms, a first for any orbital rocket.
- Booster return: Booster 22 is expected to return to Starbase roughly six and a half minutes after liftoff, following stage separation at about two minutes and 21 seconds.
- Orbital mission: Ship 42 will reach an altitude of about 275 km, deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites, and complete around 14 orbits over more than 22 hours before attempting its own tower catch.
A Two-Stage Recovery Challenge
The mission profile calls for the Super Heavy booster, flying in its V3 configuration for the first time, to separate from the upper stage and perform a controlled return to the launch site. The tower’s articulated arms, informally known as “chopsticks,” must then grasp the booster at designated points without the use of landing legs. This approach reduces mass and allows the rocket to be refurbished near the pad. SpaceX has successfully caught three V1 boosters in previous flights and reflown two of them, but this will be the first catch attempt for a V3 booster.
Meanwhile, Ship 42 will continue toward orbit. After a suborbital trajectory check, one of its Raptor engines will ignite to place the vehicle into low Earth orbit. The ship is then scheduled to release 26 Starlink V3 satellites, which will add roughly 26 terabits per second to the constellation. Three of those satellites carry cameras to inspect the ship’s heat shield while in orbit, helping controllers decide whether the vehicle is healthy enough to return to the tower.
Reentry and the Second Catch
After more than 22 hours in space, Ship 42 will fire a Raptor engine to begin its deorbit burn. The vehicle will then reenter the atmosphere, performing a belly-flop maneuver, a brief engine burn to go vertical, and a descent between the tower’s arms. The catch is targeted for approximately 22 hours and 32 minutes after liftoff, which corresponds to just after 22:15 GMT on Saturday, November 14.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has estimated the probability of success at between 50% and 60%, according to reports. The cautious optimism stems from the previous flight: Starship Flight 14 in September was the first to reach orbit and deploy payload, but an engine issue forced an early deorbit after only a few hours instead of the planned six orbits over ten hours. That experience underscores the engineering gap between reaching orbit and returning intact.
“If SpaceX gets its way, it will be the first time in history that anyone has recovered a rocket stage after placing it in orbit,” noted one mission analysis.
Why Full Reusability Matters
Recovering both stages is central to SpaceX’s goal of making Starship a fully and rapidly reusable launch system. Each recovered booster avoids the need to build an entirely new first stage, while a reusable upper stage would dramatically lower costs and increase flight cadence. That capability is also essential for NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to land astronauts on the Moon before the end of 2028. However, SpaceX still needs to demonstrate orbital refueling, a technology that has not yet been proven and is critical for lunar missions.
The flight also carries broader significance for the space industry. A successful double catch would mark the first full recovery of an orbital launch system and could accelerate the shift away from expendable rockets. Contingency plans remain in place: if either stage is not cleared for capture, the booster can splash down in the Gulf of Mexico, and the ship has authorized ocean landing zones in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
As the launch window approaches, the mission represents a calculated gamble. The booster catch is relatively proven, but the ship catch is entirely new. Success would be a historic milestone; failure would be another data point in SpaceX’s iterative learning curve. Either way, the attempt itself pushes the boundaries of what is possible in orbital rocketry.
Sources & References
- SpaceX busca por primera vez atrapar con dos pinzas de su torre de lanzamiento al cohete orbital Starship
- SpaceX está lista para lanzar el Starship 15 e intentar por primera vez la recuperación de las dos etapas del cohete
- Live updates: SpaceX aims to make history in Starship’s 15th test | CNN
- SpaceX Starship Flight 15: How to watch the double catch attempt
- SpaceX va a intentar atrapar con unos brazos gigantes las dos partes de Starship. Nadie ha hecho algo así jamás