SpaceX will try to catch both Starship stages on Nov. 13 flight
SpaceX is targeting Friday, Nov. 13, for Starship Flight 15, its first attempt to catch both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage with the launch tower's arms. Elon Musk says success would be the first full recovery of an orbital rocket; the flight still needs an FAA license.
AI-assisted · US Brief desk · Sources listed below
What happened
SpaceX is targeting Friday, Nov. 13, for Starship's 15th test flight, when it will try to catch both stages of the rocket with the arms of its launch tower in Texas. SpaceX Vice President of Launch Kiko Dontchev shared the date at a conference Thursday, Teslarati reported, citing Ars Technica.
On SpaceX's Oct. 20 earnings call, Musk put the odds of a successful ship catch at "more likely than not," Space.com reported. If it fails, he said, more flights will follow through the end of the year.
The hardware has been tested. Booster 22 fired all 33 Raptor engines on Oct. 25, and Ship 42 fired all six of its engines on Oct. 27, according to NASASpaceflight as cited by Teslarati. Ship 42 rehearsed hanging from the tower arms in September.
Why it matters
SpaceX has caught the Super Heavy booster three times but has never caught the Starship upper stage, which returns from orbital speed. "If both are successful, it will mark the first time that all parts of an orbital rocket return to Earth intact," Musk wrote on X on Friday, Xinhua reported. SpaceX says full reuse is what will make Mars settlement and other big projects affordable, Space.com reported.
More context
What remains unknown: whether the FAA will license the flight in time. The FAA's Starship page did not yet list a Flight 15 license, Teslarati said. Bringing the ship home means a reentry path toward land, not open ocean, which SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said she expects the license to cover.
Short timeline: Flight 5 (Oct. 2024) first booster catch · Flight 14 (Sept. 28, 2026) first Starship to reach orbit, deploying 26 Starlink V3 satellites · Flight 15 (target Nov. 13) first try at catching both stages.
4 listed sources
- Teslarati, Nov. 5, 2026
- Space.com, Oct. 20, 2026
- Xinhua world news summary, Nov. 7, 2026
- Tesla North, Nov. 6, 2026
References listed by US Brief; a source count is not a verification score.
Editorial sourcing notes
The Nov. 13 date came from SpaceX VP Kiko Dontchev at a conference, as reported by Ars Technica and relayed by Teslarati; SpaceX had not posted a mission page as of Nov. 5. Launch dates often slip. Musk's quotes are from SpaceX's Oct. 20 earnings call (Space.com) and his X post (Xinhua).
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