SpaceX successfully catches Starship upper stage from orbit in Test Flight 15
SpaceX achieved a major milestone during Test Flight 15 by catching the upper stage of its Starship rocket from orbit on Saturday using the launch tower's mechanical "chopsticks" arms at Starbase, Texas. Although the ambitious test marked the company's first attempt to recover both stages, booster recovery failed after it was diverted to an offshore splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, where it exploded before hitting the water.
The operation prompted temporary West Coast flight pauses by the Hawaii Department of Transportation due to debris concerns, coinciding with a separate, nationwide FAA ground stop tied to telecommunication failures, both of which were lifted. During the flight, SpaceX deployed 26 next-generation Starlink v3 satellites into orbit. The company's constellation already exceeds 11,000 satellites in low Earth orbit, and Starship is designed to carry up to 60 of the v3 satellites per launch.
Reusability is critical to SpaceX's roadmap. Expanding the Starlink network supports the company's current profit center, while Starship is also slated to land astronauts and cargo on the Moon for NASA and eventually fulfill Elon Musk's vision of colonizing Mars.
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