SpaceX will try catching both Starship stages at once

SpaceX plans to catch both halves of its Starship rocket on its next test flight. Elon Musk announced the plan Tuesday, on the company's third-quarter earnings call. SpaceX has caught Starship's booster before. It has never caught the upper stage too, on the same flight. If it works, no piece of the rocket would need a new build before flying again.

Starship works in two pieces. A giant booster shoves it off the ground. The ship itself flies on to orbit. SpaceX has landed the booster back near the launch tower on earlier flights. The upper stage is the harder catch. It comes back from much higher and faster, after flying through space. Musk called it a defining test for whether Starship can fly as cheaply as a passenger jet.

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Will SpaceX actually pull off both catches on the first try? Musk himself says it might not work. A failed catch wouldn't end the program. It would just mean more tests, and more cost, before Starship flies and lands as easily as SpaceX wants.