SpaceX plans to launch the 15th test flight of Starship on Friday, Nov. 13, and to attempt something no orbital rocket has done: catching both stages with the arms of its launch tower. If the booster and the upper stage are both recovered, Starship would become the first orbital rocket recovered in full.
Launch time and how to watch
SpaceX is targeting a 75-minute window opening at 5:45 p.m. EST (4:45 p.m. CST) from Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas. The launch still depends on regulatory approval, and Starship dates have often slipped, so the company’s Flight 15 mission page is the place to check for updates.
The live webcast starts about 30 minutes before liftoff, or around 5:15 p.m. EST if the countdown holds at the start of the window. It will stream on the mission page and on SpaceX’s X account. Spectators near the Texas-Mexico border usually gather on South Padre Island, across the bay from the site. On the Mexican side, the public beach at Playa Bagdad has a direct view of the launch tower.
Booster catch, then a Starlink deployment
About six and a half minutes after liftoff, the Super Heavy booster is expected to return to Starbase, where the tower’s mechanical arms will grab it from the air. SpaceX has made this catch three times before.
The upper stage, called Ship, will continue to orbit and release 26 of SpaceX’s next-generation Starlink V3 satellites. Ship 42 was standing on the pad ahead of the flight.
The harder test comes on day two
The Ship catch is the more demanding part of the mission and would take place the following day. Ship is scheduled to circle Earth about 14 times at an altitude of roughly 171 miles (275 kilometers) before returning.
Earlier Starship test flights ended with a practice landing at sea. Ship flipped upright and fired its engines to set down gently on the water. On Flight 15, SpaceX will run the same maneuver over Starbase and try to guide Ship into the tower’s arms instead.
SpaceX’s flight timeline puts the catch about 22.5 hours after launch. If Starship lifts off on time Friday, that would be around 4:18 p.m. EST on Saturday, Nov. 14.
Conditions for the attempt
SpaceX says Ship will head for the tower only if flight controllers confirm that every system needed for reentry, the landing burn and the final approach is working properly. If those checks fail, the company can instead bring Ship down at preplanned locations in the Pacific. Go/no-go checkpoints are built into the flight for splashdowns near Hawaii or off the coast of Chile.
Source: www.astronomy.com
