Here's how SpaceX plans to catch Starship's upper stage for the first time

SpaceX released a demo showing how it intends to catch Starship’s upper stage, which could happen as soon as next month. Here’s how SpaceX plans to catch Starship’s upper stage for the first time. Tomorrow Space Here’s how SpaceX plans to catch Starship’s upper stage for the first time Elon Musk says SpaceX will attempt to capture both the vehicle’s lower and upper stages for test flight 15.

During the company’s earnings call, which was livestreamed on X, Elon Musk announced SpaceX’s plan for the flight that could take place as soon as next month. SpaceX also showed a short video during the livestream, demonstrating how it intends to safely retrieve the Ship when it makes its way back to Earth. You can watch the SpaceX earnings call and fast forward to 1:07:19 to watch the simulation, but you can also watch the excerpt below, courtesy of investor Sawyer Merritt.

As you can see, the company intends to catch the Ship using the "chopstick" arms of its launch tower, which it had also used in the past to capture the vehicle’s Super Heavy booster. While both of the vehicle’s stages splashed into the ocean for test flight 14, SpaceX’s ultimate goal is to develop Starship into a fully and rapidly reusable orbital launch vehicle for future deep space missions. It was, after all, designed with the purpose of carrying crew and cargo to the moon and to Mars in mind.

If the company manages to catch both stages next month, it would be a huge step towards achieving that goal.