SpaceX’s next test flight of its Starship megarocket this Sunday could mark a world first: catching the returning first-stage booster using the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms — a crucial step in the company’s quest for rapid reusability.
The launch window opens at 7:00 am (1200 GMT) from the company’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas. A live webcast will be carried on SpaceX’s website and its X account.
During its last flight in June, SpaceX achieved its first successful splashdown in the Indian Ocean with the upper stage of Starship, a prototype spaceship that the company’s founder Elon Musk hopes will one day carry humanity to Mars.
NASA is also keenly awaiting a modified version of Starship to act as a lander vehicle for crewed flights to the Moon under the Artemis program later this decade.
The primary objectives for Sunday’s test, Starship’s fifth, will be attempting “the first ever return to launch site and catch of the Super Heavy booster, and another Starship reentry and landing burn, aiming for an on-target splashdown of Starship in the Indian Ocean,” SpaceX said in a statement.
The company added that its engineers have “spent years preparing and months testing for the booster catch attempt, with technicians pouring tens of thousands of hours into building the infrastructure to maximize our chances for success.”
Teams will be monitoring to ensure “thousands” of criteria are met both on the vehicle and at the tower before any attempt to return the Super Heavy booster to the tower and “catch” it.
If these conditions aren’t satisfied, the booster will be redirected for a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, as in previous tests.
