🚀 Starship Flight 15: SpaceX tries to catch both stages today
SpaceX plans to launch Starship Flight 15 on November 13 and bring the booster and the Ship back to the launch tower — a first for any orbital rocket.
The mystery
Rockets have reused boosters for years, but no orbital rocket has ever had all of its parts come home. If Flight 15 works, the biggest rocket ever built becomes fully reusable in practice, not just on paper.
The answer
The launch is set for no earlier than Friday, November 13, at 22:45 GMT from Starbase in South Texas, with a 75-minute window. About six and a half minutes after liftoff, the Super Heavy first stage, Booster 22, is meant to fly back and be grabbed by the tower's mechanical 'chopstick' arms. The upper stage, called Ship, will stay aloft far longer: if the full plan runs, it returns about 22.5 hours later, on Saturday, November 14, for its own catch at the pad. SpaceX moved Booster 22 onto the launch mount on November 10 for a pressure 'squeeze test'. The company wants Starship for Starlink launches, NASA's Artemis Moon landings planned for 2028 and, eventually, crewed trips to Mars — but first it must prove both stages can be recovered and flown again.
Now think about this
If rockets become as reusable as airplanes, what new kinds of space missions do you think will suddenly become affordable?
