SpaceX finally broke out of a serious Starship slump on Tuesday, acing the rocket’s 10th flight after months of failed attemps. Now, CEO Elon Musk has set his sights on the next big challenge: catching Starship’s upper stage with Mechazilla’s “chopstick” arms.

In an X post on Wednesday, August 27, Musk said the next opportunities to attempt this feat would likely be flights 13 through 15, depending on how well V3—the next iteration of Starship—performs. The Starship launched Tuesday was a V2, which is slightly smaller and offers less payload capacity and thrust than the forthcoming V3. In another X post , Musk said he expects V3 to be built, tested, and perhaps flown by the end of the year.

Why catch instead of land?

The Starship launch system consists of two main components: the

See Full Page