Starship Flight 15 Targets First Catch of Both Stages
By @sharedot · · 6 pages
- Space
- Starship
- Spacex
SpaceX aims to catch both the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage at Mechazilla on Nov. 13, calling it the holy grail of rocketry.
The first dual-catch attempt is set for Friday
SpaceX is targeting a 75-minute launch window opening at 4:45 p.m. CT (5:45 p.m.
EST) on Friday, Nov. 13, for the 15th Starship test flight from Orbital Launch Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas. After liftoff, crews will attempt to catch both the descending Super Heavy booster and the upper-stage "ship" back at the Mechazilla launch tower for the first time.
Booster 22 is expected to begin its return burn about 6 minutes and 35 seconds after liftoff, while Ship 42 would return roughly 22 hours later, with a reentry window on Nov. 14 between 2:56 p.m. and 6:14 p.m. CT, per advisories tracked by @LabPadre.
Why catching both halves would be a first
SpaceX has notched three previous Super Heavy booster catches, but those were first-generation Starship machines, and no upper stage has ever been caught.
According to SpaceX's website, successful upper-stage and booster catches would mark the first full recovery of an orbital launch system and a breakthrough in making Starship a reliable, rapidly reusable rocket.
SpaceX vice president of launch Kiko Dontchev, who joined the company in 2010, called the feat "the holy grail of rocketry" during a UP.Summit presentation Thursday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
The evidence: a proven ship and real cargo
The flight builds on hard-won proof points.
Starship Flight 14 demonstrated the ship could survive reentry and splashdown, and in an unusual twist after Flight 13 on July 24, marine crews captured the floating upper stage from the Indian Ocean and returned it for analysis instead of it being destroyed.
Dontchev showed the audience a hexagonal heat-shield tile from that flight, made in a Florida bakery and flown to space and back. Florida Today reports he said getting hardware back "greatly accelerates your pace of learning."
The mission should also deploy 26 third-generation Starlink satellites, with the upper stage orbiting Earth about 14 times over more than 22 hours at roughly 170 miles altitude.
What comes next: FAA approval and Florida pads
The Nov. 13 date remains pending regulatory approval, and the schedule is dynamic; previous Starship flights have slipped days or weeks waiting on FAA sign-off, making the licensing review the longest variable in the countdown.
Beyond Texas, SpaceX is developing Starship launch facilities at pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center and Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and company officials hope the inaugural Florida Starship liftoff occurs from KSC by year's end.
If both catches succeed, SpaceX would have demonstrated a fully reusable orbital launch stack — the economic foundation for its promised low cost per kilogram to orbit and eventual lunar and Mars missions.