SpaceX’s next Starship test flight will try something no orbital launch vehicle has done: catch both stages back at the launch tower. Elon Musk opened the company’s Q3 earnings webcast on Tuesday by confirming the plan for Flight 15.
The plan
“For Flight 15, which we expect to happen next month, we’re going to attempt to catch both the booster and the ship,” Musk said, according to Tesla North. If it works, he said, “it will be the first time that an orbital launch vehicle has been fully recovered.” SpaceX then played a roughly 80-second animation, shown under an “Up Next: Ship Catch” banner, of the ship reentering in its belly-flop position, flipping vertical and dropping into the tower’s chopstick arms at Starbase.
Musk didn’t promise a clean first try. “Success is not guaranteed on these first flights, but I’d say it’s more likely than not that this succeeds next flight,” he said, adding that SpaceX has “a steady stream of Starship flight attempts through the end of this year.” He also said he expects Starship to fly weekly at some point in the first half of 2027 and twice a week or more by the end of 2027.
The FAA and the hardware
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the company has had “significant constructive engagement with the FAA” and expects the Flight 15 license “to include return to launch site and tower catch for both stages.” Bringing the ship back means reentering toward land rather than over open ocean.
According to Teslarati, Ship 42, the vehicle assigned to Flight 15, was hoisted into a simulated catch position by the Pad 2 chopsticks in September. SpaceX has caught Super Heavy boosters three times before, on Flights 5, 7 and 8, but it has never caught a ship, which comes back from orbit much faster. Flight 14 on September 28 was Starship’s first orbital flight and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, and SpaceX counted it as its first revenue Starship mission in its Q3 2026 results. No firm launch date for Flight 15 has been announced.
Sources: Teslarati, Tesla North.