SpaceX has caught a Starship upper stage with its launch tower for the first time, completing a milestone the company has chased for years.
Ship 42, which launched on Flight 15 from Starbase in Texas on Friday, 13 November, returned to Earth about 22 and a half hours later. The tower’s giant mechanical arms, nicknamed the chopsticks, grabbed the spacecraft as it hovered beside the tower at about 2:20 p.m. local time on Saturday, 14 November — about 2:50 a.m. IST on Sunday. SpaceX confirmed the catch on X, posting: “Mechazilla catches Starship! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on this incredible achievement!”
The flight had launched at 4:47 p.m. Central time on Friday. Ship 42 reached orbit about 275 kilometres above Earth, deployed 26 of SpaceX’s new Starlink V3 satellites, and flew about 14 orbits before its return.
The catch came a day after the mission’s other big test went wrong. The Super Heavy booster, Booster 22, was diverted to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico about six and a half minutes after liftoff, when a guidance, navigation and control problem stopped its planned tower catch. SpaceX chief Elon Musk said the booster was also slightly low on fuel.
SpaceX has caught Super Heavy boosters at the tower three times before, on Flights 5, 7 and 8, but it had never recovered a Ship. Catching both stages is central to the company’s plan to make Starship fully reusable, which it needs for Moon and Mars missions.
