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SpaceX Catches Starship Upper Stage With Chopsticks After Orbit

SpaceX caught the upper stage of its Starship rocket on its launch tower in Texas on November 14 after 14 orbits of Earth. The booster failed its own catch a day earlier and exploded over the Gulf of Mexico. The flight also released 26 Starlink satellites.

By Elena Vance

November 15, 20262 min read

SpaceX Catches Starship Upper Stage With Chopsticks After Orbit

In a spaceflight first, the SpaceX chopsticks catch rocket maneuver worked on Saturday, November 14, 2026, when the company's launch tower at Starbase, Texas, grabbed the upper stage of Starship after it flew around Earth 14 times.

It had never been done from orbit. Crowds at the launch site cheered, and a commentator said: "Can you believe it?"

Booster lost on Friday

The test, called Test Flight 15, was the first time SpaceX tried to catch both halves of the rocket. The company uses mechanical arms on the tower, nicknamed "chopsticks," to snag returning hardware.

The first attempt came on Friday, with the booster. SpaceX aborted that catch a few minutes after launch and diverted the booster to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. It burst into flames above the water and exploded before it hit the sea.

Ship returns to the tower

The upper stage, known as the Ship, then continued into orbit. It came back a few minutes behind schedule, at around 15:20 local time (21:20 GMT) on Saturday, and landed on the tower the company calls Mechazilla.

Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder, posted a video on X showing him inspecting the upper stage after the capture.

Flight disruptions

The launch briefly affected air travel. The Hawaii Department of Transportation paused some West Coast flights on Friday because of debris risk from the flight. Separately, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a rare nationwide ground stop over telecommunications system failures. Both orders have since been lifted.

Why it matters for SpaceX

A reliable, fully reusable Starship is central to the company's plans. In the near term, SpaceX needs the rocket to carry more satellites for Starlink, its satellite internet service and currently the company's profit center.

On Friday's flight, SpaceX released another 26 of its newest Starlink v3 satellites. The constellation already included more than 11,000 satellites in low Earth orbit. The company has said one Starship can carry up to 60 Starlink v3 satellites.

SpaceX is also expected to use Starship to carry astronauts and cargo between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface for NASA. Musk has a longer-term vision of using the rocket to "colonize Mars" and "make humanity multi-planetary."