Can SpaceX catch its Starship?

November 13, 2026

4 min read

Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm

Starship Flight 15 will put SpaceX’s moonshots to the test

The 15th spaceflight of SpaceX’s giant launch vehicle aims for something unprecedented: snatching both rocket stages from midair after a journey to orbit

By Lee Billings edited by Claire Cameron

SpaceX’s Starship, the largest and most ambitious rocket ever built, is embarking on its most consequential test yet.

Elon Musk says the enormous two-stage vehicle will someday carry humans to the moon and Mars, but more immediately, Starship is central to the company’s plan to build out its Starlink satellite internet constellation (not to mention packing a million more data center satellites into orbit around Earth). But first SpaceX must show Starship can deliver on its most transformative and critical promise: full reusability.

That’s why today’s Flight 15 is so consequential. Set to launch no earlier than 5:45 P.M. EDT from the company’s Starbase site in South Texas, this test flight has a deceptively simple goal: getting the rocket into space and then, returning both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship orbiter back to Earth intact and essentially ready to fly again.

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

What that will involve is the booster and orbiter separately re-entering Earth’s atmosphere and flying back to Starbase, where the launch tower, fitted with enormous mechanical arms, will be waiting to catch them. SpaceX has previously shown it can snatch the Super Heavy from midair in previous tests; but Flight 15 will be the first attempt to catch the orbiter itself, after it has spent nearly a full day in space and circled Earth some 14 times.

If both recoveries succeed, SpaceX will have achieved a major milestone toward its goal of a fully reusable orbital rocket. As of early Friday afternoon, however, the Federal Aviation Administration had not yet issued the necessary launch license.

One flight, two catches

The mission begins with the ignition of the 33 engines on Starship’s Super Heavy booster, which will propel the spacecraft toward orbit before the two vehicles separate. Six and a half minutes after liftoff, the booster will attempt to return to Starbase and the launch tower’s awaiting mechanical “chopstick” arms.

Meanwhile, Starship itself will continue into orbit to deploy 26 next-generation satellites for Starlink, SpaceX’s fast-growing internet business. Once it’s fully operational, Starship will be able to loft Starlink satellites in far larger and more frequent batches than the firm’s retiring workhorse rocket, the Falcon 9. That will pave the way for the company’s plans to supplement Starlink with the launch of huge numbers of orbital data centers for AI. If all goes to plan, then about 22 hours later Starship will attempt its own homecoming back to Starbase, returning to Earth around 4:15 P.M. on Saturday, November 14.

Even with a flawless recovery of both stages, the real prize remains untested: SpaceX must still show that it can rapidly turnaround both the booster and orbiter for a fast return to flight. That would put the company well on its way to fulfilling Musk’s projection of roughly one Starship launch per week in the first half of 2027.

It follows Flight 14, which saw Starship successfully reach orbit and deploy a batch of operational Starlink satellites. But that mission ended early due to an engine issue on Starship, leading SpaceX to bring the vehicle down in the Pacific Ocean (the Super Heavy booster splashed down as planned in the Gulf of Mexico). Besides demonstrating a much more audacious recovery, Flight 15 should also be Starship’s longest-yet sojourn in orbit.

A moonshot in waiting

The test is essential prep for Starship to meet its obligations to NASA’s Artemis program, which seeks to return U.S. astronauts to the moon before the end of 2028. SpaceX is developing a modified Human Landing System (HLS) version of Starship to potentially serve as a lunar lander, transporting crews between lunar orbit and the moon’s surface.

Before it can ferry humans on those far-flung voyages, though, Starship has to demonstrate key capabilities closer to home. During NASA’s Artemis III mission, targeted for next summer, Starship is set to launch to rendezvous and dock in low-Earth orbit with a NASA Orion spacecraft carrying four astronauts; SpaceX’s rival Blue Origin is also part of that mission, and a test version of that company’s Blue Moon Mark 2 lander will also link up with Orion.

Future Starship test flights will also need to solve the challenge of in-space refueling, as a round-trip to the moon for the heavy HLS requires more fuel than a single Starship can carry into orbit.

SpaceX’s ambitions are unfolding against a changing political landscape as well, particularly in Texas, where the company’s Starbase facility is based. There, governor-elect Gina Hinojosa campaigned against energy-intensive data centers and has pledged to pause new approvals until stronger protections are in place.

The timing is awkward for SpaceX: The company has just disclosed plans for a proposed $24-billion gas-fired power plant and supercomputing complex at Starbase and is seeking local tax incentives for the project.

For now, the immediate question is whether Starship can do something no orbital-class rocket has done before: come home in one piece, with both stages recovered and ready, in principle, to fly again.