Starship · 29 Oct 2026
Musk says Ship 42 will be the first Starship caught by the tower, now that its static fires are done
SpaceX said on 28 Oct that Ship 42 has finished its static fires, and that night Elon Musk posted that it "will be the first tower catch." Ship 42 and Booster 22 are set for Flight 15. As of 29 Oct 2026 there's no SpaceX launch date and no FAA licence for it.
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Ship 42 static fires complete. The Starship preparing for Flight 15 performed a full duration, six-engine static fire, and fired a single Raptor engine to simulate a deorbit burn
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 28, 2026
The tests
- SpaceX says Ship 42 "performed a full duration, six-engine static fire, and fired a single Raptor engine to simulate a deorbit burn." SpaceX announced this on 28 Oct. NASASpaceflight and Next Spaceflight put the single-engine burn on 26 Oct and the six-engine fire on 27 Oct, at Massey's.
- The Flight 15 Super Heavy, Booster 22, did its own full-duration 33-engine static fire on 25 Oct. Spaceflight Now put it on Pad 2 at 8:22am CDT (9:22am ET, 7:22am PT).
The flight
- Ship 42 and Booster 22 are paired for Flight 15. The booster static-fired on Starbase's Pad 2, the tower where Ship 42 ran its catch tests.
- 8 Nov 2026 is a no-earlier-than marker on FAA air-traffic planning slides, not a SpaceX launch time. As of 29 Oct, SpaceX hasn't announced a date and the FAA hasn't issued a Flight 15 licence. Our Starship tracker keeps the latest.
- Musk quoted SpaceX's post at 10:37pm ET on 28 Oct (7:37pm PT; ): "As the prophecy foretold, Starship 42 will be the first tower catch."
Why it's a first
- SpaceX has caught Super Heavy boosters with the tower's arms since Flight 5 in October 2024, but it has never caught a Starship upper stage.
- On 11 and 12 Sep, Ship 42 was lifted by the Pad 2 chopsticks in catch-related tests, as seen in LabPadre and NASASpaceflight footage. Teams also connected the ship quick-disconnect arm several times.
- On SpaceX's 20 Oct earnings call, Musk said the company will "attempt to catch both the booster and the ship" on Flight 15, and that "it's more likely than not that this succeeds next flight" (transcript).
If it works, SpaceX would catch both stages of Starship on the same flight. Musk said on the call that would be "the first time that an orbital launch vehicle has been fully recovered."
Sources: SpaceX on X (28 Oct 2026); SpaceX on X (25 Oct 2026); Elon Musk on X (28 Oct 2026 ET); SpaceX Q3 2026 earnings call transcript (20 Oct 2026); LabPadre on X (12 Sep 2026); test dates and times per NASASpaceflight, Next Spaceflight and Spaceflight Now; FAA air-traffic planning slides for the 8 Nov marker, as logged in our Starship tracker.
— Alex R
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