SpaceX Eyes First-Ever Starship Ship Catch on Flight 15

After Starship's first orbital flight, SpaceX is targeting Flight 15 no earlier than Oct. 19 with its first attempt to catch the upper stage.

Starship's 14th flight lifted off from Starbase, Texas on September 28 at 7:48 a.m. CT and reached Earth orbit for the first time, deploying all 26 Starlink V3 satellites as its first operational payload. The flight was not clean: according to SpaceX's own mission summary posted by Inside Outer Space, a single Raptor vacuum engine shut down early during ascent, and the control team compensated by burning the remaining five engines longer before giving a "go" for orbital operations. Out of caution, SpaceX cut the planned orbit stay short and performed the vehicle's first-ever deorbit burn, splashing Starship down on target in the northern Pacific. The Super Heavy booster came down in the Gulf.

The surprising next step is what SpaceX is already pointing toward. According to FOX Weather, the 15th Starship flight is expected to fly two newer vehicles and could feature SpaceX's first attempt to catch the Starship upper stage itself with the giant "chopstick" arms on the launch tower. SpaceX has successfully caught Super Heavy boosters before, but it has never recovered the Starship ship this way. A successful catch would be a major leap toward the company's stated goal of launching, landing, and rapidly re-flying the same vehicles — the "Holy Grail" of rocketry, as SpaceX calls it. FOX Weather reports planning currently points to no earlier than October 19, 2026, though SpaceX has not announced an official launch date or confirmed the full mission profile.

Flight 14 ended several hours after liftoff with a fiery splashdown in the Pacific, and ColombiaOne reports the ship tipped onto its side and exploded after touching the water — an expected outcome, since SpaceX does not yet recover the ship intact from the ocean. ColombiaOne also notes SpaceX had designed the flight to last nearly 10 hours and complete about six laps of Earth, but shortened it to roughly three hours after the engine problem, and the company has not detailed how many laps were flown. The mission therefore proved Starship can reach orbit and deliver satellites, but it did not complete every planned objective, leaving the rapid-reusability goal — and now the catch attempt — as the remaining mountain to climb.

The engine fault matters outside the company because NASA plans to use a modified Starship as the Human Landing System that will ferry Artemis astronauts from lunar orbit to the Moon's surface, and the lunar version relies on the same Raptor engine system. Aerospace engineer Dean Sladen told ColombiaOne that the consequences depend on whether the shutdown was an isolated component failure or a broader design problem requiring fleet-wide changes, warning that repairs delaying future flights could add schedule pressure. The concern centers on Artemis III, which ColombiaOne reports is planned for summer 2027 and requires a working vehicle to practice rendezvous and docking in low Earth orbit. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has said the agency will choose whichever lunar lander is ready first.

There is also a commercial angle developing in Starship's shadow. A Motley Fool analysis argues that a working Starship now poses a threat to Rocket Lab, whose unlaunched Neutron rocket is built to compete for the constellation launch work Falcon 9 does today. According to The Motley Fool, if Starship takes over Starlink deployment, Falcon 9 flights currently used for SpaceX's own satellites could free up for paying customers, potentially pressuring launch prices right as Neutron tries to enter the market. The publication notes Rocket Lab trades near $70 a share at over 40 times annualized revenue, with launch backlog nearly doubling to about $940 million by June 30 — growth partly riding on a rocket that has not yet flown.

SpaceX is not slowing down. FOX Weather reports the company is already looking toward Flight 15 as potentially its most ambitious test yet, with two newer vehicles intended to advance the path toward rapid reusability and a possible first upper-stage tower catch. No official launch date or full mission profile has been announced, and planning points to no earlier than October 19, 2026. Meanwhile, the 26 deployed Starlink V3 satellites are conducting on-orbit checkouts and raising their orbits before they begin serving customers, per SpaceX's mission report carried by Inside Outer Space. Each V3 unit is designed to add roughly a terabit per second of capacity, so the follow-on flights that prove reusability will also determine how fast Starlink's next generation rolls out.