SpaceX Prepares Starship Flight 15, Aiming to Recover Both Booster and Ship

US company SpaceX plans to launch the 15th test flight of its Starship rocket from Starbase, Texas, on Friday, November 13, pending regulatory approval. The 75-minute launch window opens at 22:45 UTC. The flight matters because it is the first attempt to recover both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage; if it succeeds, it would be the first full recovery of an orbital launch system.

The Starship flight plan

The Starship vehicle is expected to orbit Earth at an altitude of about 275 km and complete roughly 14 orbits during a flight lasting more than 22 hours. Its primary payload is 26 Starlink V3 satellites, but attention is focused on the landings: first the booster, then the upper stage on Saturday, 22.5 hours after liftoff.

Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX's vice president of launch, said at a conference in Florida last week that the company is fundamentally an infrastructure company, not only a rocket maker. He said artificial intelligence helps speed up innovation, while human settlement and Mars remain at the core of the company's aims.

Other industry news

Rocket Lab's Electron is due to fly its 100th mission on November 14 from the Mahia Peninsula in New Zealand, carrying a satellite for Japan's iQPS. The rocket first flew in 2017.

The Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital has announced two conditional $150 million loans within two weeks, to SpaceX competitors Stoke Space and Rocket Lab, as SpaceX looks to wind down its Falcon rocket program. Rocket Lab also raised the price of its Neutron rocket from $55 million to $70 million, citing strong demand.

Firefly Aerospace agreed with Japan's Synspective on up to 10 Alpha launches through 2030, while Stoke Space signed a multi-launch agreement with Planet Labs.