Follow-up: Starship Ship Caught by Launch Tower for the First Time as Ship 42 Returns to Starbase After About 14 Orbits in 22.5 Hours
Ship 42, the upper stage of SpaceX's Starship Flight 15, was successfully caught by the launch tower's mechanical arms at Starbase, Texas, on November 14, the first tower catch of a Starship ship.
Ship 42 lifted off from Orbital Launch Pad 2 at Starbase at 22:47 UTC on November 13, deployed all 26 Starlink V3 satellites, and then flew about 14 orbits at an altitude of roughly 275 kilometres. After a deorbit burn, atmospheric reentry and a landing burn, it was caught at the tower at 21:20 UTC on November 14 (3:20 p.m. Central, 1:20 p.m. Pacific), ending a mission lasting 22 hours, 32 minutes and 32 seconds.
The flight's Super Heavy booster, Booster 22, did not complete its own catch: after detecting a guidance, navigation and control problem on its return, it diverted to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, so a same-flight recovery of both stages was not achieved on this mission.
SpaceX posted after the catch: "Mechazilla catches Starship! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on this incredible achievement!" The tower's arms, nicknamed the chopsticks, had previously caught returning Super Heavy boosters three times; catching a ship returning from orbit is a first.
(Source: SpaceX)
Source: SpaceX
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：超重型助推器返回 Starbase 发射塔、作最后进近（资料图）。Steve Jurvetson 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / File photo: A Super Heavy booster on final approach to the Starbase launch tower. Photo by Steve Jurvetson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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- 2026-11-14Follow-up: Starship Ship Caught by Launch Tower for the First Time as Ship 42 Returns to Starbase After About 14 Orbits in 22.5 HoursThis story
