SpaceX Starship Flight 15: First-Ever Dual Catch Attempt Set for November 13

SpaceX Starship Flight 15 is shaping up to be the most ambitious test flight in the history of the world's biggest rocket. SpaceX confirmed on November 7, 2026 that the 15th integrated flight test of Starship is targeting Friday, November 13, with a plan no rocket has ever attempted before: catching both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft back at the launch site with the tower's giant chopstick arms. If both catches work, SpaceX says it will mark the first full recovery of an orbital launch system.

SpaceX Starship Flight 15 Launch Date and Time

SpaceX is targeting Friday, November 13, 2026 for Starship Flight 15, with a 75-minute launch window opening at 4:45 p.m. Central Time (22:45 UTC). For viewers in India, that is 4:15 a.m. IST on Saturday, November 14. The flight will lift off from Orbital Launch Pad 2 at Starbase in Texas. The date is still pending regulatory approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, and SpaceX has warned that the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so the launch could still move by a day or more.

What Makes Flight 15 Historic: The First Dual Catch

The headline goal of Flight 15 is the double catch. SpaceX plans to bring both stages of the rocket home to the same launch tower in a single flight. The Super Heavy booster will return minutes after liftoff, and the Starship spacecraft will come back about 22 hours later, after a long coast in orbit. No rocket has ever recovered both of its stages in one mission, and no one has ever tried to catch a spacecraft the size of Starship out of the sky.

• The first attempt to catch the Starship upper stage with the tower's chopstick arms
• The first catch of a Super Heavy V3 (Block 3) booster
• The first time both stages of an orbital rocket are recovered in a single flight
• The first catch attempt at Orbital Launch Pad 2, Starbase's second launch mount
• The first full recovery of an orbital launch system, if both catches succeed

How the Mechazilla catch works

The catch is performed by Mechazilla, the launch tower's pair of giant mechanical arms. As the returning vehicle makes its final descent, it steers itself towards the tower, slows with its engines, and the arms close rapidly to grab it by two small catch fittings just below its forward flaps. Once contact registers, the vehicle shuts down its final engine and hangs from the arms. SpaceX has already caught Super Heavy boosters this way, including three of the earlier V1 boosters, but catching Starship itself is a much harder problem: the ship is returning from orbit at far higher speed and energy than a booster that only flies for a few minutes.

Starship Flight 15 Flight Plan: 22 Hours and 14 Orbits

Flight 15 will use Booster 22 and Ship 42, the fourth pair of Block 3 vehicles to fly. The mission is planned to last more than 22 hours, making it the longest Starship flight so far and only the second orbital mission in the programme. Here is how SpaceX says the flight should unfold:

• Liftoff from Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas, at the opening of the 75-minute window
• About six and a half minutes after launch, the Super Heavy booster returns to the tower and is caught by the chopstick arms
• Starship continues to orbit, performs an orbital insertion burn, and deploys 26 Starlink V3 satellites
• Ship 42 then coasts for about 21 hours, completing roughly 14 orbits at an altitude of around 275 kilometres
• After a deorbit burn and re-entry, Starship steers with its four flaps, flips vertical, and is caught by the tower about 22 and a half hours after liftoff

What Flight 14 Proved Before This Attempt

Flight 15 builds directly on Flight 14, which launched on September 28, 2026 as Starship's first orbital and operational payload mission. During that flight, Booster 21 completed its ascent, hot staging and boostback burn before a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Ship 41 reached orbit despite the early shutdown of one of its three Raptor Vacuum engines, and it deployed all 26 Starlink V3 satellites it was carrying. SpaceX then shortened the planned multi-orbit coast and brought the ship down for a controlled deorbit, re-entry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Flight 14 proved Starship could reach orbit and deliver working satellites. Flight 15 now has to prove it can come home.

What Could Still Go Wrong on Flight 15

The ship catch is far from guaranteed. Elon Musk said in September that he estimated the chance of success on the first attempt at 50 to 60 percent, and SpaceX has built the flight plan around caution. Starship will start on a passively safe suborbital trajectory and will only enter orbit if flight controllers confirm the vehicle is healthy. During the long coast, controllers will run manual and automated checks on the Raptor engines, power and communications, flight computers, navigation sensors, propellant tanks and attitude control. If anything looks wrong, the mission can end early with splashdowns in pre-cleared areas of the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii or off the coast of Chile, or in the Gulf of Mexico. The return path itself is carefully routed: Starship will fly over northern Mexico and southern Texas, weaving around cities in the Rio Grande Valley and passing north of South Padre Island, with chances to end the mission early if needed. The ship will only be cleared for the final approach to the tower if the systems needed for re-entry, the landing burn and the tower approach are all healthy.

How to Watch Starship Flight 15 Live

1. Check SpaceX's official channels on launch day for the final go or no-go, since the November 13 date is pending regulatory approval and the schedule can change.
2. Tune in to SpaceX's live webcast, streamed on the company's website and its X account, starting before the 4:45 p.m. CT window opens.
3. For viewers in India, the window opens at 4:15 a.m. IST on Saturday, November 14, with the booster catch just minutes after liftoff.
4. Stay with the coverage for the long haul: SpaceX plans to keep broadcasting through the ship catch, with live views from Starship during its 21-hour coast in orbit, powered by Starlink.

Why the Dual Catch Matters for Spaceflight

Full reusability is the whole point of Starship. Rockets today throw away their upper stages, and even the boosters that land need a drone ship and a trip back to port. Catching both stages at the launch tower would let SpaceX stack the same rocket, refuel it and fly it again quickly, which is what the system needs to become cheap enough for regular flights to orbit, the Moon and eventually Mars. Starship is also the vehicle NASA has chosen to land astronauts on the Moon under the Artemis programme. Flight 15 will not settle any of that by itself, but a successful double catch would be the clearest sign yet that the world's biggest rocket can also be its most reusable. If the ship catch fails, SpaceX will still learn from the attempt: the flight is also expected to begin testing parts of a propellant transfer demonstration, including the docking and hatch mechanism, which is a key step towards refuelling Starships in orbit.