SpaceX moves Starship Flight 15 booster to launch pad for 'squeeze test' ahead of epic double-catch attempt (photos)

SpaceX moves Starship Flight 15 booster to launch pad for 'squeeze test' ahead of epic double-catch attempt (photos) SpaceX is one big step closer to the 15th test flight of its Starship megarocket. The company announced today (Nov. 10) that it had moved its latest Starship first stage, known as Super Heavy Booster 22, to the launch mount at its Starbase facility in South Texas ahead of Flight 15, which is scheduled to lift off this Friday (Nov. 13). During the upcoming launch test, SpaceX plans to catch both Booster 22 and Starship's Ship upper stage with its launch tower's "chopstick" arms in a double landing catch — something the private spaceflight company has never tried before. It will be the first full recovery of an orbital rocket in history. Booster 22 therefore "was used for final catch testing upon arrival [at the pad], including a suspended squeeze test at catch height," SpaceX said in an X post today (Nov. 10). That post shared four photos of the giant booster, which is powered by 33 of SpaceX's next-gen Raptor engines. The first shot showed Super Heavy in one of Starbase's "Mega Bay" assembly buildings before rollout, while the other three depicted it grasped by the tower's arms, held high in the South Texas sky. SpaceX has used the chopstick arms during Starship flights before; it has successfully caught Super Heavy on three separate occasions. But the company has never attempted a catch of Ship, which flies higher and farther than the booster and is therefore a more challenging target. And SpaceX only reached orbit with Starship for the first time on Flight 14, which launched on Sept. 28. So Flight 15 will break new ground. And, if all goes to plan, it will give us a look at the future: SpaceX plans to catch Super Heavy and Ship on all operational Starship missions, as this recovery strategy will allow the company to boost the megarocket's launch cadence. And SpaceX wants to fly Starship incredibly often, so that it can build out its Starlink V3 broadband constellation and even bigger Starmind AI data-center network. Indeed, Elon Musk has said the company is eyeing 10,000 Starship flights per year by 2030. If all goes to plan, Flight 15 will launch from Starbase on Friday during a 75-minute window that opens at 5:45 p.m. EST (2245 GMT; 4:45 p.m. local Texas time). Super Heavy will return to Starbase for its catch about 6.5 minutes after liftoff. Ship will follow suit much later — about 22 hours later, in fact, after it has deployed 26 Starlink V3 spacecraft into LEO and completed 14 circuits of our planet. You can watch all the action live here at Space.com and get updates about the mission here. Michael Wall is the Spaceflight and Tech Editor for Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers human and robotic spaceflight, military space, and exoplanets, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.