SpaceX achieved a spectacular first on Sunday when it used a pair of giant mechanical arms to catch the 70-meter-tall Super Heavy booster just minutes after it deployed the Starship spacecraft to orbit in the vehicle’s fifth test flight.
But SpaceX isn’t stopping there. As part of its efforts to create a fully reusable spaceflight system for the Starship — comprising the first-stage Super Heavy booster and the upper-stage Starship spacecraft — SpaceX will attempt to catch not only the booster, but also the spacecraft.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk confirmed the plan for the world’s most powerful rocket in a post on X ( formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, saying, “Hopefully early next year, we will catch the ship too.”
Before then, SpaceX will want to carry out more test flights of the Starship in which it will continue to catch the Super Heavy, while the Starship will continue to come down in the ocean, as it did in Sunday’s test flight.
Catching the Starship back at the launch base will allow for a faster turnaround time between launches, with the spacecraft only needing to be checked, refurbished, and refueled before being lifted atop a Super Heavy for another flight.
SpaceX also has to perfect a landing system for the Starship that involves it touching down on the ground in a vertical position, as this is how it will arrive on other celestial bodies such as the moon and possibly Mars (at least until any launch and landing infrastructure can be built).
It’s actually already achieved such a landing in Earth-based tests several years ago, but those touchdowns involved shorter “hops” into the atmosphere rather than more complex orbital flights.
It’s certainly an exciting time for SpaceX engineers as they put much of their attention into the continued development of the Starship.
NASA is planning to use SpaceX’s spacecraft to put two astronauts on the lunar surface in the Artemis III mission, which is currently scheduled for 2026, so there is much work to be done.
