Starship reaches orbit on Flight 15: SpaceX scrapped the booster catch and now aims to catch the ship for the first time
In short: The megarocket lifted off from Texas on November 13, put its ship in orbit and released 26 Starlink satellites. The ship is due back at the launch site in under 24 hours.
Starship Flight 15 lifted off on November 13, 2026 from SpaceX's Starbase in Texas, and its ship reached a near-perfect low Earth orbit. But the booster was not caught by the tower arms: SpaceX called off that maneuver. Space.com reports it.
What happened at liftoff?
The megarocket left the pad at 5:47 p.m. ET, with the Super Heavy booster's 33 Raptor 3 engines producing over 18 million pounds of thrust. About 2.5 minutes in came hot staging: the ship lit its own engines while separating. It then reached low Earth orbit and, according to Space.com, released 26 Starlink satellites. Ars Technica notes it is the second time SpaceX has flown Starship to low Earth orbit.
Why did SpaceX call off the booster catch?
SpaceX planned to catch Super Heavy with the tower's mechanical "chopsticks", but called it off and brought the booster down in a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico about 6.5 minutes after launch, without immediately explaining why. It would have been the first recovery of a Version 3 (V3) Super Heavy. SpaceX has previously recovered three V1 boosters and reused two of them on later flights.
What happens next?
The ship is on a 22-hour flight and SpaceX is preparing to bring it back to the launch site in under 24 hours, something it has never done. According to Ars Technica, the catch could be attempted this Saturday, Nov. 14. If it works, it would be a key step toward a fully reusable rocket.
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