Archive · 6 Aug 2026
SpaceX targets first Starship upper-stage tower catch this month
SpaceX is a company that builds very big rockets.
Its biggest rocket is called Starship, and it has two parts that are both supposed to fly again and again.
Soon, SpaceX wants to launch Starship once more.
This time it will try something never done before: catching the part that goes to space with giant metal arms on a tower, like picking up a toy with chopsticks.
Last time Starship flew, it came back and landed safely in the ocean.
The special heat shield that protects the rocket from burning up worked very well.
The next flight will also carry real internet satellites to work in space.
SpaceX's boss, Elon Musk, hopes that one day the company will launch a rocket every single day.
Even further in the future, they want to put special AI computers in space to help with technology.
SpaceX aims to launch Starship Flight 14 before the end of August, pending regulatory approval.
The mission will attempt the first-ever catch of the 171-foot Ship upper stage using the launch tower's 'chopstick' arms at Starbase, Texas.
Flight 14 would be the first Starship flight to deploy operational payloads - Starlink V3 satellites - into orbit.
Flight 13 on July 24 ended with a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean, and Musk said the heat shield problem is essentially solved.
SpaceX plans operational spacecraft for its Starmind orbital AI network in 2027 and expects at least one flight per day within a year.
- Who
- SpaceX, led by CEO Elon Musk, with the launch plan pending regulatory approval.
- What
- The next Starship test flight (Flight 14), aiming for the first-ever tower catch of the upper stage and deployment of operational Starlink V3 satellites.
- When
- Announced during SpaceX's first quarterly earnings call since its public listing; tentatively scheduled for the end of August.
- Where
- Starbase launch site in Texas; Flight 13's splashdown occurred in the Indian Ocean.
- Why
- To prove upper-stage reusability through tower catch recovery and support SpaceX's goals of high launch cadence and its Starmind orbital AI network.
- Company
- SpaceX
- Next mission
- Starship Flight 14
- Target launch
- End of August, pending regulatory approval
- Upper-stage recovery
- First-ever tower catch attempt using 'chopstick' arms
- Payload
- Operational Starlink V3 satellites (first operational orbit deployment)
- Upper stage dimensions
- 171 feet (52 metres)
- Previous flight
- Flight 13 on July 24 - controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean; carried 20 Starlink V3 satellites on a suborbital trajectory
- Future plans
- Starmind orbital AI network operational spacecraft from 2027; at least one flight per day within a year