SpaceX catches Starship after orbital flight but loses booster

SpaceX caught its Starship spacecraft with the launch tower’s mechanical arms at Starbase in Texas on Saturday, 14 November 2026, marking the first time the upper stage had been recovered this way after returning from orbit. The catch came about 22 hours after lift-off. The Super Heavy booster was lost during its return, preventing SpaceX from recovering both stages on the same flight.

Starship completed 14 orbits at an altitude of about 265 km and deployed 26 Starlink satellites. It was the 15th full-scale Starship flight since testing began in 2023 and the second to reach orbit. SpaceX said the spacecraft’s heat shield appeared to have performed as expected.

SpaceX said the booster’s engines shut down too early during its return. Its guidance system detected that it was out of position, and the booster diverted away from the landing site before its flight termination system activated over the Gulf of Mexico. Engineers are investigating why the engines shut down prematurely.

The catch marks a step towards SpaceX’s goal of recovering and rapidly reusing both stages. NASA welcomed the result as it prepares to test lunar lander docking in Earth orbit on Artemis III. The agency is targeting 2028 at the earliest for Artemis IV, its first planned crewed lunar landing since Apollo.