SpaceX Prepares to Catch Both Starship Stages in Historic Flight 15

SpaceX is about to make history by catching both halves of its Starship rocket in one launch. The company moved Super Heavy Booster 22 to the launch mount at Starbase in South Texas ahead of Flight 15, scheduled for Friday. The 33‑engine booster will be gripped by the tower’s “chopstick” arms, a maneuver SpaceX has used to recover the booster alone but never the upper stage.

If the catch succeeds, it will be the first full recovery of an orbital rocket. Flight 15 opens a 75‑minute window at 5:45 p.m. EST. Super Heavy is expected to return to the pad about 6.5 minutes after liftoff, while the Ship upper stage will follow roughly 22 hours later, after deploying 26 Starlink V3 satellites and completing 14 circuits of Earth.

The test will show whether the recovery system can handle the higher, farther‑flying upper stage. Catching the upper stage is a new challenge. The Ship flies higher and farther than the booster, making it a more difficult target for the chopsticks. SpaceX has never attempted this double catch, so the outcome remains uncertain.

A failure would highlight the limits of the current recovery design.

SpaceX’s long‑term goal is to fly 10,000 Starship missions per year by 2030, building out its Starlink V3 constellation and a Starmind AI data‑center network.

Our read: a successful double catch would unlock the rapid launch cadence needed for that ambition.

Watch Friday’s launch to see if history is made.