Overview
- The Starship stack lifted off from Starbase in Boca Chica on Friday, Nov. 13, but SpaceX aborted the planned tower capture of the Super Heavy booster and the booster splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico.
- The Starship upper stage completed orbital operations and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites during the first 90 minutes of the mission.
- SpaceX said it may try to capture the reentering upper stage on Saturday afternoon, a far harder maneuver because the vehicle faces much higher heat and speed during reentry.
- The recovery concept replaces heavy landing legs with a fixed launch tower and articulated capture arms called Mechazilla that must grasp stages with centimeter-level precision.
- A successful tower catch of the upper stage would prove full reuse, cut launch costs, and support NASA lunar plans and higher flight cadence, while a failure will leave SpaceX relying on ocean recovery and engineering data from on-board sensors.