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SpaceX will attempt to catch both stages of its Starship rocket on a test flight scheduled for Friday, in what would be the first full mid-air recovery of a vehicle that has reached space. The 124-metre rocket is set to lift off from the company’s Starbase launchpad in Texas at 16:45 local time (22:45 GMT), with a 75-minute launch window.
The procedure relies on large mechanical arms — informally called chopsticks — mounted on the launch tower. Six and a half minutes after liftoff, the arms will attempt to grab the bottom section, known as the Super Heavy booster, as it returns to the pad. SpaceX has successfully caught the booster on three previous test flights, making that manoeuvre the more proven of the two.
The upper stage, called the Ship, will then continue into orbit, deploy 26 Starlink satellites, and complete 14 circuits of the Earth before returning for a second catch attempt roughly 22 and a half hours after launch. That catch has never been tried before; on earlier flights the Ship splashed down in the ocean after reaching orbit for the first time only in September.
SpaceX said it will assess the Ship’s condition while it is in space before committing to the catch attempt. If problems are detected, the vehicle can be directed to an ocean splashdown at several points during the return.
What full reusability would mean
SpaceX has pursued reusable rockets since 2015, when its Falcon 9 became the first rocket to land its booster vertically. Falcon 9 now flies more than a hundred times a year, and booster reuse has substantially reduced launch costs. Recovering an entire Starship — both stages — would extend that logic to a far larger vehicle.
Malcolm Macdonald, President of the Royal Aeronautical Society, said a successful double catch would carry significance beyond the spectacle. “Full reusability has the potential to fundamentally change the economics of accessing space,” he said. “One successful flight will not prove that model, but it could mark an important transition: from demonstrating that Starship can fly, to demonstrating how Starship could operate.”
Nasa’s Moon programme watching closely
The flight carries direct implications for NASA’s Artemis programme, which aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface. SpaceX holds a NASA contract to adapt the Ship into a lunar lander for crewed missions. NASA administrator Jared Isaacman has framed the effort as a race with China, which plans to land its own astronauts on the Moon by 2030.
The current schedule calls for Artemis III — in which four astronauts aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft would dock with both SpaceX and Blue Origin landers — to fly in summer 2027. A lunar landing is targeted for 2028, a timeline described as highly ambitious. Starship’s development has proceeded more slowly than SpaceX originally planned.
Blue Origin, which also holds a NASA lander contract, faces its own delays. The company’s New Glenn rocket exploded earlier this year, destroying its Florida launchpad. Blue Origin had said it would return to flight before the end of 2025, but that has slipped to early 2027.
SpaceX went public earlier this year, meaning Friday’s test will be watched not only by NASA engineers but also by the company’s shareholders.