SpaceX is preparing to try something no rocket company has pulled off: bringing every piece of an orbital launcher home in one piece. Elon Musk confirmed on X on Friday that the coming Starship mission will try to grab the Super Heavy first stage as well as the ship itself with the launch tower’s mechanical arms.
If both catches work, Musk wrote, it would be the first time all parts of an orbital rocket return intact, a step he called critical for making life multiplanetary. SpaceX launch vice-president Kiko Dontchev has given 13 November as the target date for Flight 15, although a licence from the Federal Aviation Administration had not yet been published. Gwynne Shotwell, who runs SpaceX day to day as president, expects regulators to sign off on bringing both stages back to the tower.
The booster part is familiar territory. Three times already, the tower has grabbed a returning Super Heavy. The ship is a different challenge: it comes back from orbital speed and has only ever ended its missions with a splashdown at sea.
To reach Starbase in south Texas, the vehicle must now cross populated areas of northern Mexico and southern Texas. SpaceX says controllers will commit to the return only if the spacecraft meets pre-agreed conditions approved by the FAA. Near the tower it flips upright on three engines, throttles down to one and hovers while the arms clamp onto fittings just below its forward flaps.
Musk’s own forecast is cautiously upbeat: he rates a win as “more likely than not”. Its predecessor, Flight 14, flew at the end of September, gave Starship its first trip to orbit and deployed 26 Starlink satellites even though one engine quit early.
