SpaceX Plans First-Ever Catch of Starship and Booster, According to Musk

SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk announced that the company plans to attempt catching the Starship and its booster next month, aiming to recover the entire orbital launch system for the first time. If this endeavor succeeds, it would mark a historic achievement as the first complete recovery of an orbital launch vehicle. Musk described this as a significant technological milestone in human history during the company’s third-quarter earnings call.

However, he acknowledged the potential for setbacks. “Success is not guaranteed on these first flights, but I’d say it’s more likely than not that this succeeds next flight,” Musk stated. He also mentioned that if this attempt doesn’t go as planned, there will be numerous Starship flight attempts continuing through the end of this year and ramping up next year.

Starship is a two-stage system, consisting of the Super Heavy booster (first stage) and the Starship spacecraft (second stage). It reaches about 120 meters (around 400 feet) in height and has a diameter of 9 meters, powered by SpaceX’s Raptor engines that utilize liquid methane and liquid oxygen. Introduced in 2018, Starship is designed to return to the launch site, where mechanical “chopstick” arms on launch towers are intended to catch the vehicle mid-air.

Last month’s Starship launch achieved two significant milestones for the next-gen rocket: it successfully sent the spacecraft into Earth orbit and deployed several of SpaceX’s larger V3 satellites into the Starlink constellation for the first time. However, the launch faced challenges, including a premature shutdown of one Raptor engine during ascent, which required mission control to adapt and complete the climb using the remaining engines. As a result, the planned 10-hour, 6-orbit mission was cut short after approximately 3 hours and 2 Earth orbits.

The Super Heavy booster ultimately splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, while the Starship upper stage performed a de-orbit burn, resulting in a fiery vertical splashdown in the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii. Unfortunately, neither component was recovered.

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