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Elon Musk Podcast · Today · 9 min

INSANE SpaceX Starship Flight 14 Update: ORBIT & FIRST-EVER SHIP CATCH?!

SpaceX wants Starship Flight 14 to carry viable payloads into orbit and then bring the upper stage back to the launch tower for its first catch attempt. The company is tentatively aiming for the end of August, although it still needs regulatory approval and a clean review of the previous flight. SpaceX has caught Super Heavy three times, but it has never tried to catch a 52-meter ship after orbital entry. Can Flight 14 really go from useful payload deployment to a tower catch on the same mission?Flight 14 asks Starship to do far more than repeat another hourlong trip to the Indian Ocean. We are going through the likely hardware, the orbital flight path, the payload deployment, the deorbit burn, the return to Texas, the catch sequence, the booster problem, and every decision that could send the ship away from the tower.

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SpaceX wants Starship Flight 14 to carry viable payloads into orbit and then bring the upper stage back to the launch tower for its first catch attempt.

The company is tentatively aiming for the end of August, although it still needs regulatory approval and a clean review of the previous flight. SpaceX has caught Super Heavy three times, but it has never tried to catch a 52-meter ship after orbital entry. Can Flight 14 really go from useful payload deployment to a tower catch on the same mission?Flight 14 asks Starship to do far more than repeat another hourlong trip to the Indian Ocean. We are going through the likely hardware, the orbital flight path, the payload deployment, the deorbit burn, the return to Texas, the catch sequence, the booster problem, and every decision that could send the ship away from the tower.