Elon Musk Says SpaceX Can Try Starship Upper Stage Ship Catch In Flight 8

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SpaceX will likely try to catch the second-stage Starship spacecraft with the tower arms on Flight 8, according to fresh statements from Elon Musk. Starship Flight 6, which ended earlier today, focused on the second-stage as most of the test’s outcomes were geared around the vehicle. These saw SpaceX conduct the first Starship in-space engine re-ignition, test out the forward (upper) flaps at a much steeper entry profile and validate the design of its heat shield and ship by flying older tiles.

The test culminated with Starship making a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, and Musk believes that if the ship can complete another soft splashdown on Flight 7, then SpaceX can try to catch the ship with the tower arms on the next flight.

SpaceX Aims To Conduct One More Starship Second Stage Ocean Landing Before Proceeding With Tower Catch, Says Musk

SpaceX’s Starship Flight 6 was nothing but full of surprises, or as the firm would like to put it, the test was ‘bananas.’ After the spectacular success of Flight 5’s tower catch, all eyes were on the Super Heavy booster and the tower catch for Flight 6. SpaceX’s initial system checks run before the boost back burn and around the time of stage separation suggested that the tower was go for a catch attempt.

Soon after, as Starship Super Heavy had shut off its engines and glided down to Earth, controllers announced that they would divert the rocket to the ocean. While the reasons behind the diversion are privy to SpaceX, footage from local media showed damage to a communications tower on the launch tower.

Additionally, SpaceX had planned to increase the intensity of the tower catch during Starship Flight 6, according to Musk’s statements before the test, but unless the firm shares more details, it’s unclear what caused the aborted catch attempt.

The star of the show was the upper stage Starship spacecraft. Not only did the firm fly Starship at a much steeper angle and with older heat shield tiles, but it also deliberately left some regions uncovered by the tiles. This was done in order to evaluate potential regions to place the catch hardware to enable a ship tower catch.

Now, after Flight 6, Musk took to X to share that if the upper stage Starship ship can successfully land once again in the water during Starship Flight 7, then SpaceX will attempt to catch it with the tower on the next test flight. In his previous remarks, the executive outlined that SpaceX would attempt at least three successful soft splashdowns before trying to catch the ship with the tower.

According to Musk, SpaceX “will do one more ocean landing of the ship. If that goes well, SpaceX will attempt to catch the ship with the tower.” His statements imply that preliminary data about the potential catch hardware locations yielded favorable outcomes. These outcomes would be unsurprising given the robust performance of the second-stage Starship during today’s test flight. Furthermore, if SpaceX wishes to proceed with the tower catch on Flight 8, it will have to install hardware to catch the Starship upper stage in Flight 7 to test it beforehand.

In its first statement after Flight 6, SpaceX shared that data “gathered from the multiple thermal protection experiments, as well as the successful flight through subsonic speeds at a more aggressive angle of attack, provides invaluable feedback on flight hardware performing in a flight environment as we aim for eventual ship return and catch.” The firm added that the successful in-flight ignition of the Raptor engine demonstrates “the capabilities required to conduct a ship deorbit burn before starting fully orbital missions.”