SpaceX to Attempt First Double Catch of Starship, With Both Rocket Parts Targeted by the Tower Arms

SpaceX will attempt to catch both parts of its huge Starship rocket after it launches on its next test flight on Friday. Elon Musk's company will use the mechanical arms, nicknamed chopsticks, on its launch tower to grab the rocket parts mid-air as they return to Earth.

If successful, this will be the first full recovery of a rocket that has been to space, paving the way for making Starship reusable so it can fly repeatedly.

Nasa will be closely watching the flight. The SpaceX rocket is set to play a vital part in its Artemis programme, which will see astronauts land on the Moon.

Starship is the tallest, heaviest and most powerful rocket ever flown, at 124 metres tall. It is scheduled to blast off from the Starbase launchpad in Texas at 1645 local time (2245 GMT), with a 75-minute launch window.

After six and a half minutes, the first planned catch will be attempted when the bottom part of the rocket, the Super Heavy booster, returns to the launch tower. SpaceX has managed to catch the Super Heavy booster on three earlier test flights.

The top part of the rocket, called the Ship, will continue its journey to space and deploy 26 satellites. These will form part of the Starlink constellation that provides high-speed internet from space.

The Ship is then due to complete 14 orbits around the Earth before returning for the second catch attempt, about 22 and a half hours after taking off. The upper stage reached orbit for the first time in September, but it has never been grabbed by the chopsticks; instead it has splashed down in the ocean.

SpaceX said it would only decide to try to catch the Ship after carefully assessing the vehicle while it is in space. If any problems are detected, there are various points during the flight when the rocket stage can be brought down in the ocean.

Building a fully reusable rocket is a long-held ambition for SpaceX. In 2015, it became the first company to vertically land part of a rocket with its Falcon 9 booster. Falcon 9 rockets now fly more than a hundred times a year, and the ability to reuse the bottom part has dramatically cut the cost of launch.

Prof Malcolm Macdonald, President of the Royal Aeronautical Society, said a successful double catch would be visually spectacular, but full reusability could fundamentally change the economics of accessing space. One successful flight would not prove that model, he said, but it could mark an important transition, from demonstrating that Starship can fly to demonstrating how Starship could operate.

Starship's progress has direct implications for Nasa's attempt to land humans on the Moon in 2028, a highly ambitious timeline. SpaceX has been given a Nasa contract to configure the Ship into a lander that will eventually take astronauts down to the lunar surface.

Blue Origin, owned by rival tech billionaire Jeff Bezos, also has a Nasa contract to use its New Glenn rocket and lander for the Moon touchdown. The company suffered a major setback earlier this year when its rocket exploded, totally destroying its launchpad in Florida. It had said it would be back in action by the end of this year, but a return to flight has now been delayed to early 2027.

Artemis III, currently planned for summer 2027, will see four astronauts in Nasa's Orion spacecraft attempt to dock with both SpaceX and Blue Origin landers. Nasa administrator Jared Isaacman has said America is in a race with China to get to the Moon; China plans to land its Taikonauts on the lunar surface by 2030.