On November 14, SpaceX made history by catching the Starship upper stage from Flight 15 with ‘chopsticks’ at Starbase, Texas, after it orbited Earth 14 times, deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, and returned from space.
The launch on November 13 overcame a nationwide FAA ground stop caused by a telecom outage.
While the booster splashed down in the Gulf due to fuel issues, Elon Musk and the team hailed the catch as a major step toward fully reusable rockets, with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman adding praise.
