SpaceX lastly broke out of a severe Starship hunch on Tuesday, acing the rocket’s 10th flight after months of failed attemps. Now, CEO Elon Musk has set his sights on the following massive problem: catching Starship’s higher stage with Mechazilla’s “chopstick” arms.
In an X submit on Wednesday, August 27, Musk said the following alternatives to aim this feat would possible be flights 13 via 15, relying on how properly V3—the following iteration of Starship—performs. The Starship launched Tuesday was a V2, which is barely smaller and affords much less payload capability and thrust than the forthcoming V3. In one other X post, Musk mentioned he expects V3 to be constructed, examined, and maybe flown by the top of the yr.
Starship catch might be flight 13 to fifteen, relying on how properly V3 flights go
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 27, 2025
Why catch as an alternative of land?
The Starship launch system consists of two essential parts: the ‘Tremendous Heavy’ booster and an higher stage spacecraft known as Starship. Each phases are designed for speedy reuse, which means they should return to Earth in a single piece. That’s the place Mechazilla is available in.
This huge launch tower at Starbase, Texas is provided with large chopstick-like arms designed to catch Tremendous Heavy and Starship throughout their separate descents. This strategy is best suited to Starship than gentle touchdown on a droneship or touchdown pad just like the Falcon 9. Starship is way bigger, so it might require extra-big touchdown legs and intensive touchdown infrastructure to do this. The chopstick catch eliminates these wants and thus reduces weight.
Can SpaceX pull it off in 4 months?
SpaceX already caught Super Heavy on Flight 5 in October 2024, Flight 7 in January, and Flight 8 in March, nevertheless it has but to aim this with Starship. After the primary profitable booster catch, Musk said he hoped to catch Starship someday in 2025, however the first half of the yr didn’t precisely go as deliberate. A series of explosive failures in the course of the first half of the yr considerably delayed Starship’s launch schedule.
If Musk is focusing on Flight 13 for a primary try of the Starship catch, meaning SpaceX would want to launch Flights 11 and 12 inside the subsequent 4 months to tug this off in 2025. It’s not an impossibility, nevertheless it’s extra possible that the primary Starship catch will happen someday in 2026.
Nonetheless, Starship’s near-flawless efficiency throughout Flight 10 suggests SpaceX’s luck could also be altering. The megarocket launched on time, adopted by a clean stage separation and booster touchdown—no catch try this time. Simply over 18 minutes into the mission, it opened its bay doorways and ejected payloads into area for the primary time. That mentioned, this megarocket nonetheless has a protracted strategy to go to get to Mars.
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