SpaceX to attempt to catch its first Starship on land in 15th flight

Detailed summary

SpaceX's latest Starship flight planned for Friday will include its first attempt to catch the spacecraft at its Texas launch site, rather than discarding it in ‌the ocean — a key test of Elon Musk's bid to make a fully reusable rocket system.

The 124-metre-tall Starship rocket is scheduled to launch at 5:45 p.m. ET from SpaceX's Starbase launch facilities in South Texas for its 15th flight since 2023 and the second to carry a batch of operational Starlink satellites. That makes the mission both a revenue-generating endeavour for ​its satellite connectivity business and a high-stakes test for a rocket still in development.

SpaceX, ​as of Friday morning, had not received a launch licence from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA, which has typically issued licences a day prior to past Starship launches, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk's ​space and AI colossus views the next-generation Starship rocket as crucial to expanding its Starlink network with more satellites ⁠and, in the future, deploying a ⁠vast swarm of AI data-processing satellites called Starmind, as the company increasingly positions ‌itself as an infrastructure giant.

SpaceX last launched Starship in September, taking the rocket and its satellites to orbit for the first time despite some engines shutting down mid-flight. That mission, planned to last 10 hours, ended after roughly three hours with an intact splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

For Friday's mission, the company expects to return to Texas both Starship's Super Heavy booster and ⁠the Starship upper stage it launches to space. The upper stage — the top half of the rocket that serves as the spacecraft — will return some 22 hours after launch. SpaceX has said it would be a "breakthrough moment in making Starship a reliable, rapidly reusable rocket" if all goes as planned.

SpaceX has returned the 71-metre-tall Super Heavy booster three times to its launchpad after sending Starship to space, falling back…

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