SpaceX’s upcoming Starship launch, scheduled for Friday, marks the company’s first attempt to capture the spacecraft at its Texas launch site instead of discarding it into the ocean. This is a significant test in Elon Musk’s vision of developing a completely reusable rocket system.
The 124-meter-tall Starship rocket is set to take off at 5:45 p.m. ET from SpaceX’s Starbase facilities in South Texas. This flight will be the 15th since 2023 and the second mission to deploy operational Starlink satellites. Consequently, the mission serves as both a revenue-generating venture for its satellite connectivity operations and a critical test for a rocket that is still undergoing development.
As of Friday morning, SpaceX had not yet acquired a launch license from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA, which has historically issued licenses a day in advance of previous Starship launches, did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Musk’s space and AI enterprise considers the next-gen Starship rocket vital for expanding its Starlink network with additional satellites and, in the future, deploying a large cluster of AI data-processing satellites named Starmind. This positions the company increasingly as an infrastructure leader.
In September, SpaceX successfully launched Starship for the first time, sending the rocket and its satellites into orbit despite experiencing engine shutdowns during the flight. The mission, intended to last 10 hours, concluded after approximately three hours with a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
SpaceX amazed engineers, scientists, and space fans by successfully bringing its largest rocket booster back to its launch pad in one piece. The reusability aspect of the Starship rocket is anticipated to significantly reduce mission costs.
For the upcoming mission, SpaceX intends to retrieve both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage, which is the part of the rocket that acts as the spacecraft. The upper stage is projected to return approximately 22 hours post-launch. If everything proceeds as planned, SpaceX believes this will represent a “breakthrough moment in making Starship a dependable, rapidly reusable rocket.”
Preparing for Starship
SpaceX has successfully returned the 71-meter-tall Super Heavy booster to its launchpad three times after launching Starship, with the booster descending vertically into large mechanical arms attached to its launch tower around 10 minutes post-launch. The most recent “tower catch” occurred in March 2025.
For this 15th mission, SpaceX will need to clear the Super Heavy booster from the launchpad to allow for Starship’s descent, which is expected to occur after it completes 14 orbits around Earth. This sets the stage for the inaugural Starship catch, anticipated to take place around 3:45 p.m. ET on Saturday.
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Musk has indicated that he anticipates a weekly schedule for Starship launches by the first half of 2027, while SpaceX has suggested that it could commence launching Starship from a new Florida site by late 2026.
Nasa has contributed roughly $3.2 billion to support the development of Starship since selecting the rocket in 2021 to function as a moon lander for its astronauts as part of the multibillion-dollar Artemis moon program. SpaceX has invested at least $15 billion of its own resources into the rocket’s advancement.
A social media clip taken in Turks and Caicos captures debris streaking across the sky following the breakup of the new Starship rocket during a test flight.
NASA and SpaceX aim for Starship to carry humans to the moon by 2028; however, several significant testing milestones remain that analysts and industry experts believe may delay this timeline.
These milestones encompass the demonstration of intricate fuel transfers between Starship “tanker” rockets in orbit—an essential process that will allow Starship to venture beyond Earth’s orbit to the lunar surface.
Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin is also working on a lunar lander, Blue Moon, for NASA as part of the Artemis program. Blue Moon is expected to join Starship and NASA’s Orion capsule in Earth’s orbit next year for Artemis III, a docking test mission before NASA’s planned lunar landing missions commence with Artemis IV.