SpaceX Prepares Historic Double Catch Attempt for Massive Starship Rocket

SpaceX is scheduled to launch its massive Starship rocket from a pad in South Texas on Friday in an ambitious test flight aiming to capture both vehicle stages using giant mechanical arms.

The 124-meter tall launch vehicle is set to lift off at 4:45 p.m. local time.

The lower booster section is expected to return to the launch site six and a half minutes after blastoff.

The upper stage will continue into orbit to deploy 26 Starlink satellites, circle the Earth 14 times, and attempt a return landing 22 hours later.

A successful recovery of both sections would mark a major step toward making the world's most powerful launch system fully reusable.

Reusing rockets could drastically reduce mission costs and change how space is accessed.

"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," said SpaceX.

The upper stage has never been caught mid-air, having previously splashed down in the ocean during earlier tests.

The company has successfully caught the Super Heavy booster on 3 previous occasions.

NASA is closely watching the test because Starship is selected to serve as a lunar lander for the Artemis program.

The spacecraft is also central to Elon Musk's long-term plans to carry astronauts to Mars.

"A successful double catch would be visually spectacular, but full reusability has the potential to fundamentally change the economics of accessing space," said Malcolm Macdonald, president of the Royal Aeronautical Society, according to the BBC.

Technical challenges remain, including the demonstration of fuel transfers between vehicles in orbit.

The Federal Aviation Administration had not given final approval for the test flight as of late Thursday, according to Phys.org.

SpaceX stated it will only proceed with the ship recovery attempt if conditions in space are optimal.