Elon Musk thinks that Space Exploration Technologies Corp.‘s (NASDAQ:SPCX) Starship rocket could be caught by the company’s “Mechazilla” launch and catch tower in the coming months.
A Fork in the Road For Space Travel
On Wednesday, the billionaire quoted a post by user @r0ck3t23 on the social media platform X, which outlined Musk’s concerns about achieving full rocket reusability; a milestone that has been touted as difficult to achieve. “Looks like we will probably catch the ship [Starship] with the tower in a few months,” Musk said.
Musk added that if there were a tower at sea where SpaceX had practiced landing the ship, “it would have been caught.” He then said that the Starship’s first reflight, that is, flying the same ship again, will “be either end of this year or early next.” Musk touted the attempt as “a fork in the road of history for consciousness reaching the stars.”
Musk had earlier said that SpaceX would attempt to catch the Starship rocket’s upper stage in the next flight test in a post on X in late July. “Unless we discover problems after mission data review, SpaceX will attempt to catch the ship with the tower on next flight,” he said.
In October 2024, SpaceX made history by performing the first-ever booster stage catch mid-air using the Mechazilla tower at Starbase, Texas.
Starship Flight 13 Recovery
Musk recently confirmed that SpaceX was recovering the Starship Flight 13 rocket from the Indian Ocean after it spent nearly 24 days at sea. The billionaire had earlier said that the rocket was intentionally launched faster to test its heat shield capabilities.
The Flight 13 test faced multiple delays, including issues involving its Raptor engines and unfavorable weather. Recently, SpaceX also made history after it conducted two Falcon 9 rocket launches just 38 minutes apart from one another, which set a new record for the shortest time between orbital flights.
SpaceX provides a favorable price trend in the Short, Medium and Long term, according to Benzinga Edge Rankings.
Price Action: SpaceX shares were down 1.43% to $137.65 during pre-market trading on Thursday.
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