{"id":4453,"date":"2026-11-15T00:03:52","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T19:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4453"},"modified":"2026-11-15T00:03:52","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T19:03:52","slug":"spacexs-starship-nears-end-of-15th-test-flight-and-return-landing-attempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=4453","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX&#8217;s Starship nears end of 15th test flight and return-landing attempt"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>SpaceX\u2019s next-generation Starship spacecraft cruised around the globe on Saturday, nearing the end of its 15th test flight and what the company hoped would be an \u200bunprecedented pinpoint return landing at the exact spot in Texas from which it \u200claunched.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Starship\u2019s uncrewed upper stage is poised to re-enter Earth\u2019s atmosphere after nearly a day in orbit and steer back toward its launch tower, then make an engine-controlled final descent into the embrace of giant mechanical arms designed \u200bto catch the vehicle as it hovers over the launchpad.<\/p>\n<p>If successful, it will mark \u200bthe first round-trip voyage of a vertically launched spacecraft to orbit and back \u2060to the very spot where it left Earth, achieving a key test of Elon Musk\u2019s long-pursued \u200bgoal of producing a fully reusable rocket system.<\/p>\n<p>The towering two-stage rocket\u2019s Super Heavy booster \u2014 the rocket\u2019s \u200bbottom half \u2014 carried Starship to space on Friday, lifting off from SpaceX\u2019s Starbase, Texas facilities. That booster failed to return to the launch pad some 10 minutes after liftoff because of an onboard navigation issue, nixing \u200bSpaceX\u2019s plan to recover both parts of the rocket for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>Starship, cruising at an \u200baltitude of roughly 161 miles (260km), is expected to complete 14 orbits around Earth for a total flight time \u200cof \u206022 hours 32 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>The 15th Starship flight since 2023 became the longest-lasting mission last night, lasting longer than the roughly three-hour trek in its 14th flight in September, when it reached orbit for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX has spent roughly a decade developing Starship, which billionaire CEO Elon Musk sees \u200bas the future workhorse \u200bfor the company\u2019s satellite \u2060business and ambitions to put humans on the moon and eventually Mars.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX\u2019s dominance in the global launch industry has been centred on its workhorse \u200bFalcon 9 rocket, which has launched over 700 times since 2010. That \u200brocket\u2019s first \u2060stage is reusable, but its second stage &#8211; the part that delivers payloads into orbit &#8211; is discarded into the ocean after each flight.<\/p>\n<p>Starship\u2019s Super Heavy booster has been recovered on three previous test flights using \u2060the launch-tower \u200bcatching system, the last such catch occurring in March \u200b2025. The company has not made such a landing since, either because it planned to dunk it in the Gulf \u200bwaters or because of an onboard glitch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SpaceX\u2019s next-generation Starship spacecraft cruised around the globe on Saturday, nearing the end of its 15th test flight and what the company hoped would be an \u200bunprecedented pinpoint return landing at the exact spot in Texas from which it \u200claunched. Starship\u2019s uncrewed upper stage is poised to re-enter Earth\u2019s atmosphere after nearly a day in orbit and steer back toward its launch tower, then make an engine-controlled final descent into the embrace of giant mechanical arms designed \u200bto catch the vehicle as it hovers over the launchpad. If successful, it&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}