Elon Musk announced during a livestreamed earnings call on X that SpaceX will attempt to capture both the vehicle’s lower and upper stages for test flight 15. The flight could take place as soon as next month. During the livestream, SpaceX also showed a short video demonstrating how it intends to safely retrieve the Ship when it makes its way back to Earth.
As demonstrated in the simulation, the company intends to catch the Ship using the “chopstick” arms of its launch tower, which it had also used in the past to capture the vehicle’s Super Heavy booster. While both of the vehicle’s stages splashed into the ocean for test flight 14, SpaceX’s ultimate goal is to develop Starship into a fully and rapidly reusable orbital launch vehicle for future deep space missions.
The spacecraft was designed with the purpose of carrying crew and cargo to the moon and to Mars in mind. If the company manages to catch both stages next month, it would be a huge step towards achieving that goal.
The company has yet to try capturing Starship’s upper stage, as it travels higher and farther than the booster. It’s faster as well. For Flight 14, for instance, Ship was supposed to spend 10 hours in orbit, circling our planet. SpaceX ultimately had to cut the trip short because one of Ship’s engines malfunctioned, but it still took hours to return to Earth, whereas Super Heavy came back just a few minutes after launch.
