SpaceX to try catching Starship and its booster next month, Musk says

Elon Musk, CEO of the US space company SpaceX, said on Tuesday during the firm's third-quarter earnings report that it will try next month to catch the Starship spacecraft and its booster. The aim is to recover an entire orbital launch system for the first time. Musk said that, if it works, it would be a first in history.

Musk acknowledged that success is not assured. He said the early flights carry no guarantee, but he considers it more likely than not that the next flight succeeds. If it fails, he said, a steady series of Starship flight attempts is planned through the end of the year, accelerating in the following year.

How the system works

Starship has two stages: the Super Heavy booster (first stage) and the Starship spacecraft (second stage). Together they stand about 120 meters (roughly 400 feet) tall with a 9-meter diameter. The Raptor engines burn liquid methane and liquid oxygen. The system was first introduced in 2018 and is designed to return to its launch site, where mechanical "chopstick" arms on the launch tower catch the vehicle in mid-air.

The previous flight

Last month's Starship launch delivered two firsts for the next-generation rocket: the spacecraft reached Earth orbit, and a few dozen of SpaceX's larger, more capable V3 satellites were added to the Starlink constellation for the first time.

The flight was not free of problems, however. One Raptor engine shut down early during ascent, and mission control had to adapt and finish the climb on the remaining engines. Because of this, SpaceX cut the planned 10-hour, six-orbit mission to about three hours and two orbits.

The Super Heavy booster splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, while the Starship upper stage performed a de-orbit burn and ended with a fiery vertical splashdown in the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii. Neither piece was recovered.