SpaceX May Attempt Dual Starship Stage Catches on Flight 15

What changed

SpaceX says its 15th Starship test flight, targeted for November 2026, may attempt tower catches of both the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage at Starbase, Texas.

The company says Flight 14 produced enough data to try. It also expects the Federal Aviation Administration license to cover a return over land, including northern Mexico, and both catches.

Why it matters

This is the point where Starship’s promise becomes a logistics problem. Catching both stages is dramatic, but the larger test is whether SpaceX can make the vehicle usable again quickly enough to fly often.

Elon Musk said Starship could reach weekly launches in the first half of 2027 and twice-weekly launches in the second half. Gwynne Shotwell said SpaceX plans to refly a Starship upper stage early next year, followed by a long-delayed orbital refueling demonstration.

Those targets matter beyond launch frequency. SpaceX is discussing up to 10 GW of ground-based AI compute in 2027, while its longer-term space data ambitions still depend on a rocket that can carry hardware repeatedly. Reusability is therefore the hinge between an impressive test program and a functioning infrastructure business.

The refueling test is especially consequential for NASA’s Artemis Program. Starship would need to transfer liquid oxygen and methane between vehicles in low-Earth orbit before attempting a lunar landing. The demonstration would provide data on transfer efficiency and how quickly those propellants boil off in space, helping refine how many launches a lunar mission would require.

The informed bet is that SpaceX is trying to turn Starship from a sequence of increasingly capable tests into a flight operation with a timetable. That timetable remains conditional: the license, November launch, catch attempts, reuse schedule and cadence targets are not yet confirmed.