SpaceX plans first attempt to catch both Starship stages on its 15th test flight

In brief

• SpaceX plans its 15th Starship test flight for the night of Friday to Saturday, German time.
• The booster is to be caught by the launch tower arms, as in earlier flights.
• The new element is an attempt to recover the upper stage after about a day in orbit.

Launch timing and what is planned

SpaceX has scheduled the next Starship test flight for the night between Friday and Saturday, German time, with the launch window opening at 23:45 CET (SpaceX: Was den neuen Test der Riesenrakete Starship besonders macht – DER SPIEGEL). Company plans can still shift, including at short notice, as is common with test campaigns of this scale.

Booster catch at the tower

After liftoff and separation of the two stages, the first stage, called Super Heavy, is to return to the Starbase launch site in South Texas and be caught by the mechanical arms of the launch tower, known as Mechazilla (SpaceX Starship test to attempt first-ever spaceship 'catch' – Phys.org). The booster catch was already demonstrated in earlier flights, so attention now centres on the second part of the plan (Muskova Mechazilla má zachytiť padajúcu raketu. Môže to znamenať revolúciu v lietaní do vesmíru – SME.sk).

The upper stage attempt

The new element is the planned recovery of the upper stage, the Starship ship itself, after it has spent about a day in orbit and re-entered the atmosphere (To byłaby nowa era kosmosu. Gigant Elona Muska może zdobyć "Świętego Graala technologii" – Onet). Reports describe this as the first attempt to catch a spacecraft of this kind (Raumfahrt: Doppelter Fang? Riesen-Rakete Starship vor neuem Testflug – ZEIT ONLINE).

Why it matters

For SpaceX, reusing both stages would remove the need to build new hardware after each flight, a cost driver in orbital launch. Musk has argued for years that fully reusable rockets could make spaceflight routine. Whether the ship can survive re-entry intact and be caught by the arms will show how close the design is to that goal.

Questions readers ask

Who is affected? Mainly SpaceX and its customers, along with residents and visitors near Starbase, where crowds gathered before the launch.

When does it happen? The flight is planned for the night from Friday to Saturday, German time, from 23:45 CET.

What happens if it is delayed? Schedules can move at short notice, and the company has not confirmed a fixed date beyond the planned window.