The Starship upper stage, or ship, from the Flight 13 mission in July was towed to Christmas Island in the eastern Indian Ocean. Credit: SpaceX
WASHINGTON — The next flight of SpaceX’s Starship vehicle is now unlikely to involve an attempt to catch the vehicle’s upper stage back at the launch site as the launch slips into September.
In SpaceX’s second-quarter earnings call Aug. 4, Chief Executive Elon Musk announced that the next flight of Starship, then planned for the end of August, would be the vehicle’s first mission to orbit, deploying Starlink satellites to an “operational orbit.”
Musk also said that, on that upcoming flight, SpaceX would attempt for the first time to return the Starship upper stage, or ship, to the company’s Starbase, Texas, launch site, where it would be caught by the launch tower. The company has previously demonstrated the ability to catch the larger Super Heavy booster back at the launch site.
“I would say things look very good, and that’s why we, assuming we receive regulatory approval to do so, will attempt to catch the ship with the tower on the next flight, which is tentatively scheduled for the end of this month,” he said.
