SpaceX Will Try to Catch Both Halves of Starship on Friday, a First in Rocketry
The 15th Starship flight, targeted for Nov. 13 from South Texas, would end with the launch tower catching the booster minutes after liftoff and the ship the next day after 14 orbits, pending FAA approval.
By HANNAH LINDGRENScience & Space · Nov 11, 8:30 PM
TEXAS — SpaceX is preparing to try something no rocket company has ever pulled off: plucking both stages of an orbital rocket out of the sky with the same giant tower that launched them. The company is targeting Friday, Nov. 13, for the 15th flight of its Starship megarocket, with a 75-minute launch window opening at 5:45 p.m. Eastern from its Starbase site in South Texas, Space.com reported. SpaceX has described the mission as a possible "first full recovery of an orbital launch system," according to Space.com.
If it works, it will be a landmark for American engineering. The tower's mechanical arms, nicknamed chopsticks, have caught the Super Heavy booster on three earlier flights, but the Starship upper stage, known simply as Ship, has never been caught.
Under the flight plan, the Super Heavy booster will fly back to Starbase and be grabbed by the tower about six and a half minutes after liftoff, Space.com reported. It would be the first catch attempt for SpaceX's newest version 3 booster, Nature World News noted. Each of the two catch towers at Starbase rises 480 feet, Gizmodo reported.
The Ship, meanwhile, is set to circle Earth about 14 times at roughly 171 miles up…