SpaceX wants to catch a skyscraper falling out of the sky. The company plans to launch its next Starship as soon as this month and, for the first time, try to catch the returning upper stage with the giant robotic arms on its launch tower.
Elon Musk laid out the plan on SpaceX’s first earnings call since its public listing, three months after a Starship V3 booster exploded just before that listing. Flight 14 could fly before the end of August, pending regulatory approval.
Catching the upper stage would be a genuine milestonea as SpaceX has already caught the Super Heavy booster three times with the tower’s chopstick arms, but the Ship, the part that reaches orbit and returns, has never been caught before.
This flight is also meant to do real work. It will carry Starlink V3 satellites to an operational orbit, the first time Starship delivers viable payloads rather than test articles.
The confidence follows a good run. The previous flight, in late July, succeeded, and its heat shield survived re-entry intact after years of the tiles being Starship’s most stubborn weakness.
