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Watch SpaceX will attempt its 1st-ever 'chopsticks' Starship landing catch of a rocket from orbit today (livestream)

SpaceX plans to catch the upper stage of its Starship megarocket for the first time ever today (Nov.

✦ Extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting•From 3 sources•1 min read•Updated November 14, 2026, 9:14 PM UTC
Key points
  • The attempt follows an unsuccessful effort to catch of the rocket’s booster which instead came down in the ocean.
  • And the double chopstick catch is key to that vision, SpaceX says, for it will enable quicker inspection, refurbishment and reflight of Starship.
  • "If successful, this will mark the first full recovery of an orbital launch system and a breakthrough moment in making Starship a reliable, rapidly reusable rocket," the company wrote in a Flight 15 mission description.

Starship Test Flight 15 marks the first time Elon Musk's company has tried to catch both the booster and upper stage of the rocket.

And SpaceX plans to use Starship to build an even bigger network in LEO — Starmind, an AI data-center constellation that will harbor a million spacecraft, according to Elon Musk.

Additional details
  • There's no guarantee that it will happen, however: If SpaceX detects anything off-nominal with Ship, it will scrap the catch attempt, as it did with Super Heavy on Friday afternoon.
  • SpaceX plans to bring both of Starship's stages back to Starbase for a catch by the launch tower's "chopstick" arms — something it has never done before.
  • So the company will doubtless try the maneuver again soon — probably on the next Starship flight, which won't be too far down the road.
  • But a catch of the Ship upper stage is still on the table, and that would be historic in itself: SpaceX has never tried it before.
  • (Image credit: SpaceX) While the double-catch attempt was Flight 15's main headline, the mission had other objectives as well.

How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →

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Every article behind this summary — 4 articles from 3 outlets

CNBCNovember 14, 2026, 9:14 PM UTC → BBC WorldNovember 14, 2026, 9:05 PM UTC → Space.comNovember 14, 2026, 1:00 PM UTC → Space.comNovember 13, 2026, 5:05 AM UTC →

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