Catch the upper starship scene with “baguettes”

SpaceX finally broke out of a serious starship crisis on Tuesday on the 10th flight of the rocket after months of failed attemons. Now, CEO Elon Musk has set out on the next big challenge: to catch the upper starship scene with the “Chopstick” arms of Mechazilla.

In an X Post on Wednesday, August 27, Musk said that the next opportunities to try this feat would probably be thefts 13 to 15, according to the way V3 – the next iteration of starship – is reforming. Starship launched on Tuesday was a V2, which is slightly smaller and offers less payload and thrust capacity than the next V3. In another post X, Musk said he expects V3 to be built, tested and perhaps stolen by the end of the year.

Starship Catch is probably theft 13 to 15, depending on how V3 flights take place

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 27, 2025

Why catch instead of the earth?

The starship launch system consists of two main components: the “super heavy” booster and a spaceship at the upper stage called starship. The two steps are designed for rapid reuse, which means that they must return to earth in one room. This is where Mechazilla comes into play.

This massive launch tower at Starbase, Texas, is equipped with giant wand -shaped arms designed to catch super heavy and starship during their separate descents. This approach is better suited to starship than on a gentle landing on a cushion or landing block like Falcon 9. Starship is much larger, so additional landing legs and an in -depth landing infrastructure to do this. The baguette eliminates these needs and thus reduces the weight.

Can SpaceX remove it in four months?

SpaceX has already caught super heavy on flight 5 in October 2024, flight 7 in January and flight 8 in March, but he has not yet tried this with Starship. After the first successful booster, Musk said he hoped to catch Starship in 2025, but the first half did not go exactly as planned. A series of explosive failures during the first half of the year has considerably delayed the launching calendar of Starship.

If Musk targets flight 13 for a first attempt to capture starship, this means that SpaceX should launch flights 11 and 12 in the next four months to achieve this in 2025. It is not an impossibility, but it is more likely that the first sparship catch will take place in 2026.

However, the performance of almost flawless starship during flight 10 suggest that SpaceX’s chance could change. The Megarothe has been launched in time, followed by a separation from the scene and a landing of Booster – no attempt to capture this time. A little over 18 minutes after the start of the mission, it opened its bay doors and ejected useful loads into space for the first time. That said, this Megarro -Carte still has a long way to go to go to Mars.