33 engines, 15 seconds: Starship's booster is ready to try the first full catch 🚀

On Sunday, 25 October, SpaceX lit all 33 Raptor 3 engines on Super Heavy Booster 22 while it stayed clamped to the launch mount at Starbase in South Texas. The firing lasted about 15 seconds, and SpaceX called it a "full duration 33-engine static fire for the Super Heavy booster preparing for Flight 15." A static fire is one of the last big tests a booster goes through before it flies. What makes this one special is what Flight 15 is meant to try: catching both stages of Starship with the launch tower.

Why this flight matters

SpaceX has caught the Super Heavy booster with the tower's "chopstick" arms three times before. The upper stage, called Ship, has never been caught. It comes back from orbit much faster than the booster, so its heat shield and guidance have a far harder job before it can drop between the arms.

On SpaceX's third-quarter earnings call on 20 October, Elon Musk confirmed that Flight 15 will attempt that double catch. "If we succeed, it will be the first time that an orbital launch vehicle has been fully recovered," he said, adding that he thinks it is "more likely than not" to work on the first try. Gwynne Shotwell said SpaceX expects the Flight 15 licence to include return to launch site and tower catch for both stages, after what she called "significant constructive engagement with the FAA."

The hardware has been rehearsing. In September, Ship 42, the upper stage assigned to Flight 15, was lifted by the Pad 2 chopsticks into a simulated catch position, while crews cycled the arms and connected the ship's quick-disconnect arm as it hung from the tower.

A third-generation booster

Booster 22 is a V3 Super Heavy. It has three grid fins instead of four, each one 50% larger, and an integrated hot stage replaces the throwaway interstage of earlier boosters. According to Spaceflight News, each sea-level Raptor 3 makes about 250 metric tons-force of thrust (up from 230) while weighing about 1,525 kg (down from 1,630). More thrust from a lighter engine is exactly the kind of quiet improvement that makes reuse easier.

Why I find this exciting

Falcon 9 already showed how much cheaper spaceflight gets when you land the booster. But its upper stage is still thrown away on every flight. Starship is designed so that nothing is thrown away, and catching the ship on the tower is the step that closes that loop. It's also what makes bigger plans realistic: Flight 14 on 28 September already delivered 26 Starlink V3 satellites to orbit, satellites too big for Falcon 9, and NASA's Artemis plans depend on a Starship lunar lander.

The honest caveats

There's no official launch date yet. FAA planning documents point to no earlier than 8 November, and the licence for Flight 15 has not been issued. Ship 42 still needs its own static fire and final checks; NASASpaceflight reported that its engines were removed and it went back for another cryogenic test. Flight 14 also had an upper-stage Raptor shut down early. This is still a test programme, and a first catch attempt may not work.

Sources

Fifteen seconds of fire on a Sunday morning, and the first fully reusable orbital rocket is one step closer. I'll be watching Flight 15 closely.

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