SpaceX targets a 75-minute window opening at 5:45 p.m. EST on Friday for Starship Flight 15 from Starbase in South Texas.
It attempts the first midair catch of both the Super Heavy booster and the upper-stage spacecraft using launch tower mechanical arms.
Starship Targets First Double Catch
The mission lifts off from Pad 2 at Starbase, Cameron County, Texas. The Super Heavy booster separates from the Starship upper stage a little over two minutes after liftoff. The booster returns to the launch site, where SpaceX aims to catch it using tower arms known as “chopsticks”.
“As it launches towards the southeast, and it will be daylight, then the prospects for viewing from the U.S. are going to be in Texas and the states along the Gulf of Mexico,” Robert Massey, deputy executive director at the Royal Astronomical Society, told Space.com
The upper stage continues into low Earth orbit after booster separation. Starship will orbit Earth about 14 times over 22 hours at an altitude of 171 miles. It will deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites.
Starship is preparing for catch Flight 15 is targeting to launch as early as Friday, November 13, pending regulatory approval → https://t.co/K5XRci6bnw pic.twitter.com/WS2xGLjVsx
“It certainly will be visible in twilight hours. It should be very bright, considerably brighter than the Starlink satellites due to its size,” professor James Osborn of Durham University told Space.com
Flight controllers will perform checks throughout the orbital coast before executing a deorbit burn. SpaceX was founded in 2002 by tech mogul Elon Musk. Starship stands at 400 feet tall as the world’s largest and most powerful rocket.
Starship flight maneuvers pic.twitter.com/QVEpWqfm5X
Starship previously ended its mission with an ocean splashdown, demonstrating ascent, in-space maneuvers, payload deploys, and safe atmospheric reentry. Flight 15 marks the company’s first official attempt at bringing an upper stage back from orbit to a safe, upright landing within the arms of the South Texas launch tower.
Starship will become the first fully recovered orbital rocket in history if successful. The booster is expected to return to Starbase 6 minutes and 35 seconds after launch to be caught by mechanical arms. The upper-stage catch attempt is scheduled around T+22:32:34.
Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas in new @SpaceX note on flight 15: “We do not believe the stock market fully appreciates the significance. A successful catch of both the booster and the ship is likely to be a material positive for the stock, and an even bigger positive for the… pic.twitter.com/ekRJJrMdeQ
Starship Reenters the Atmosphere on Saturday
Starship reenters the atmosphere on Saturday, November 14, guiding itself toward Starbase using four control flaps if all systems meet return criteria. Reentry generates plasma temperatures exceeding 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Starship is obviously meant to be a reusable launch vehicle and is meant to survive atmospheric reentry,” Jeremy Pedro, SpaceX's director of Starship propulsion systems, said in a video recently released by SpaceX
Residents in Cameron County may hear sonic booms as the booster returns shortly after liftoff. They may hear them again the next day during the upper-stage return. Flight controllers will only permit Starship to return if the vehicle’s status meets internally developed and Federal Aviation Administration-approved conditions for a return to launch site and catch.
The Federal Aviation Administration licenses commercial rocket launches and monitored all activities associated with the conduct of the licensed launch and reentry. SpaceX operated within approved flight parameters, according to an emailed statement from the agency. The company was required to prove during its application process for Flight 15 that casualty risks would remain below 1 in a million.
Weather for Starship Flight 15 on Friday looks good: Sunny, light winds, temperatures in the upper 70s, relatively low humidity. I don't know the constraints on return weather Saturday, but only differences are a few more clouds and slightly stronger winds, gusting 15 to 20 mph.
SpaceX Reports Net Income of $4.4 Billion
Flight 15 arrives as SpaceX trades publicly following its June 12 stock listing at $135 per share. Net income reached $4.4 billion, equating to $0.35 per diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA totaled $8.8 billion.
Launch revenue was $1.8 billion. The mission marked the completion of the rocket program’s first revenue-generating Starship flight through the deployment of Starlink V3 satellites.
Morgan Stanley Maintains Overweight Rating for SpaceX
Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas maintains an “Overweight” rating and a $300 price target. He described SpaceX as cheap and getting cheaper because of its expected growth. He called a successful double catch a potential catalyst that could give the stock a lift by strengthening confidence in Starship’s path toward full reusability.
November 13 remains the scheduled date. A trouble-free flight alone will not resolve valuation worries or heavy capital requirements.
The cheap part of a launch, relatively speaking, is the fuel. And so being able to do reusability, particularly quickly, with a minimum of refurbishment, allows you to really drive down the cost of launching things into space and allows you to increase the amount of stuff you can send into space, which SpaceX has really been leaning into.
Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society
