SpaceX will attempt 1st-ever double Starship rocket catch on next test launch, a ‘profound technology milestone,’ Elon Musk says

SpaceX will quickly notch a substantial spaceflight turning point, if all goes according to strategy.

The business will attempt to capture both phases of its Starship megarocket throughout the car’s next test flight, which is targeted for next month, creator and CEO Elon Musk revealed throughout SpaceX’s quarter 3 (Q3) profits call today (Oct. 20).

If SpaceX prospers, this “will be the first time that an orbital launch vehicle has been fully recovered,” Musk stated. “The only way that we can extend consciousness beyond Earth on a sustained basis is with a fully reusable orbital launch vehicle. So this is, I think, a profound technology milestone in the history of civilization and consciousness.”

Starship’s healing method is various than that for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, which are partly multiple-use. (The latter 2 rockets have expendable upper phases). Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters return to Earth on landing pads near the launch website or on ships at sea downrange. Super Heavy and Ship, nevertheless, will guide themselves straight back to their launch tower, which will record each lorry with its “chopstick” arms.

This will permit SpaceX to check, recondition and refly Starship at a sped up rate, which is a top priority for the business: Musk has actually stated he visualizes releasing Starship more than 10,000 times each year by 2030.

Starship has actually performed 14 test flights to date, and SpaceX has actually managed chopstick captures with Super Heavy on 3 of them. The business has actually not yet attempted to capture Ship, which is a harder proposal, as the upper phase takes a trip greater, further and quicker than the booster does.

Still, Musk is positive that SpaceX will manage a Ship catch on the very first shot. (He did not provide a particular time frame for Flight 15, stating just that it was anticipated next month.)

“I’d say it’s more likely than not that this succeeds next flight,” he stated. “And if not, we have a steady stream of Starship flight attempts through the end of this year, and and then accelerating next year.”

Success would imply back-to-back Starship flights with substantial turning points. On Flight 14, which happened on Sept. 28, Ship reached orbit for the very first time everIt likewise released 26 of SpaceX’s Starlink Version 3 satellites– the very first 26 members of a next-gen broadband constellation in low Earth orbit that will ultimately include about 100,000 spacecraft

The Starship Flight 15 sneak peek was something of an aside throughout today’s call. The occasion mainly served to reveal SpaceX’s monetary efficiency throughout Q3, the three-month stretch that ended on Sept. 30.

And that efficiency was strong, business agents stated. SpaceX taped profits of$ 14.6 billion throughout Q3, a boost of 161 % from the $5.6 billion made throughout Q3 of 2025. The business had an earnings of $4.4 billion throughout Q3,$5.5 billion much better than the arise from the very same stretch in 2015, when SpaceX lost $1.1 billion.

Simply $ 1.8 billion of 2026 Q3 earnings originated from SpaceX’s launch department. The large bulk was created by 2 other sections– connection (services supplied by its Starlink megaconstellation) and expert system (or, as the Trump administration has actually just recently rebranded it, “superintelligence”.

SpaceX believes these latter 2 sections will continue to expand. That’s why it’s constructing the facilities to support countless Starship launches each year– to loft great deals of Starlink satellites and AI information centers to Earth orbit. And the business thinks that it’s placed to truly begin generating the money, beginning as quickly as next year.

“In a nutshell, what this implies for SpaceX annual recurring revenue by the end of ’27 is somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion,” Musk stated.