SpaceX Launches Starship Flight 15 but Skips Super Heavy Booster Catch
SpaceX launched Starship's 15th flight from South Texas on November 13 but skipped the planned catch of its Super Heavy booster. A second attempt, catching the Ship upper stage after a trip around the planet, was scheduled for Saturday if conditions are met.
SpaceX launched Starship Flight 15 from its Starbase site in South Texas on Friday, November 13, but skipped the planned landing of the Super Heavy booster. The company had hoped to catch the first stage with the launch tower's mechanical arms. It aborted that attempt.
The reason for skipping the booster catch was not immediately clear. The launch itself went ahead during a 75-minute window that opened at 5:45 p.m. EST (2245 GMT).
What SpaceX had planned
This was meant to be a double-catch test. SpaceX planned to recover both the booster and the Ship upper stage chopstick-style at the launch pad, something the company itself calls the "Holy Grail of rocketry."
The booster catch would have come about 6.5 minutes after liftoff. It was also the first try at catching a next-generation Super Heavy "V3" vehicle. SpaceX has so far caught three Super Heavy boosters and reused two of them.
The Ship catch is still on the schedule
If the Ship gets approval for orbital insertion, it will release 26 Starlink V3 satellites into low Earth orbit, starting about 35 minutes after launch. Those satellites are designed for use on Starship.
About 21 hours later, SpaceX would try to bring the Ship back to Starbase and catch it. That depends on what the company calls "internally developed, and FAA-approved, conditions," including an in-orbit check of the Ship's heat shield by three of the V3 satellites. The attempt was planned for Saturday, November 14.
The return would be the first Ship reentry over inhabited areas. The vehicle would pass over sparsely populated parts of northern Mexico and southern Texas, then perform a bellyflop maneuver on its way to Pad 2 at Starbase. On earlier missions, the Ship splashed down in the open ocean.
Why it matters to SpaceX
SpaceX wrote in its mission description that a full catch of both stages would be "the first full recovery of an orbital launch system and a breakthrough moment in making Starship a reliable, rapidly reusable rocket."
Elon Musk, SpaceX's chief, said on X on November 6 that a double catch would be "the critical breakthrough needed to make life multiplanetary." The booster is the half of the system that SpaceX has already largely proven. Catching the Ship is the unprecedented part.
The company is aiming for roughly 10,000 Starship launches a year by 2030, which works out to more than one per hour. Musk said on an August earnings call that SpaceX would aim to refly the Super Heavy and Ship early next year.
