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SpaceX will attempt historic catch of returning Starship booster on Sunday

Starship is ready to fly again — and for the first time, SpaceX is going to try to bring the booster back to the launch site to catch it with a pair of

This flight, which will be the fifth in the Starship development program, is coming a little sooner than expected: the Federal Aviation Administration had previously said that it did not anticipate issuing a modified launch license for this test before late November. So it makes sense that the primary objectives for this fifth flight test are two-fold: attempting the first-ever “catch” of the Super Heavy booster at the launch site and an on-target Starship reentry and splashdown in the Indian Ocean. If these are met, the mission’s Flight Director will issue a manual command to the booster prior to the completion of a trajectory-adjusting maneuver known as a boostback burn roughly 3 minutes and 40 seconds after lift-off.

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