SpaceX plans to reach the Starship's upper stage with "sticks" in early 2025, says Elon Musk

SpaceX has no plans to rest on its rocket-catching successes.

The company made space history on Sunday (October 13) during the fifth test flight of its mega rocket Starship: About seven minutes after launch, the vehicle's first stage carrier, known as Super Heavy, returned to its launch mount, where it was located by the “rods” -Arms of the launch tower trapped.

According to company founder and CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX plans to do the same with Starship's 165-foot (50-meter) upper stage spacecraft – known as Starship or simply Ship – in the coming months. “Hopefully we'll get to the ship early next year too,” Musk said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday (October 15).

SpaceX is developing the 400-foot (122-meter), fully reusable spacecraft to carry people and cargo to the Moon and Mars, as well as a variety of other space feats. Things are going well; According to the company, the vehicle's last two test flights – on June 6 and last Sunday – were a complete success.

So it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that SpaceX plans to push the envelope and bring the ship back safely on one or more upcoming test flights. (The upper stage sank in the Indian Ocean during recent missions.)

Related: Starship and Super Heavy explained

Views of a SpaceX Flight 5 spacecraft re-entering Earth's atmosphere surrounded by glowing red plasma.

A view of the upper stage of the SpaceX Flight 5 spacecraft as it re-enters Earth's atmosphere, surrounded by glowing red plasma. (Image credit: SpaceX)

However, catching the ship with the launch tower likely won't apply to all of the vehicle's missions. If all goes according to plan, the upper stage will carry people to the surface of the Moon and Mars, for example – excursions that are expected to require propulsive, vertical landings using landing legs.

But SpaceX also plans to launch many Starship missions into Earth orbit – for example, to continue the expansion of its massive Starlink broadband mega-constellation and to refuel other spacecraft heading to distant realms. Takeoff landings make sense for these vehicles because they can fly to and from Earth orbit quickly and efficiently.

SpaceX plans to reach the Starship's upper stage with “sticks” in early 2025, says Elon Musk

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