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Starship Flight 15: the first tower catch of a ship back from orbit, and a lost booster

November 15, 2026

CrosswindBay is an independent site. This post summarizes SpaceX’s published flight summary and news reports, listed at the bottom. Details are preliminary, and the cause of the booster loss is still under investigation.

On Saturday, November 14, 2026, a rocket stage came back from orbit, flew through the atmosphere like a very large and very fast glider, flipped upright, and settled into a pair of mechanical arms on the same tower it had launched from 22.5 hours earlier. That was Starship Flight 15. It was a first for the program, but the flight was not a clean sweep: the booster that lifted it off the pad aborted its own catch and was destroyed offshore over the Gulf.

The catch

Flight 15 lifted off from Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas, at 4:47 p.m. CST (5:47 p.m. EST) on Friday, November 13 (Spaceflight Now). The upper stage, called Ship 42, reached orbit and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites. After more than 20 hours of monitoring in space, it relit a single Raptor engine for its deorbit burn (SpaceX).

Spaceflight Now reported that the ship reentered over the Pacific and made a supersonic flight across Mexico and the southwestern United States before turning out over the ocean to line up with Starbase (Spaceflight Now). SpaceX’s flight summary says it flew a final “swoosh” maneuver over the Gulf. Then three Raptor engines ignited for a landing flip and a slow descent into the tower’s waiting arms, which closed to catch the ship “for the very first time” (SpaceX).

The catch came at about 4:20 p.m. EST (3:20 p.m. in Texas) (Space.com). SpaceX had caught Super Heavy boosters on three earlier flights but had never tried a ship catch before (Space.com; BBC).

The final seconds, in pilot terms

SpaceX’s published timeline reads a lot like an approach briefing (SpaceX):

From subsonic to arms closed took a little over two minutes, and the flip-to-catch sequence about 16 seconds. The decision points were planned well before that. SpaceX’s timeline lists return checks that could have sent the ship to a splashdown off Hawaii or Chile instead, and Spaceflight Now reported that everything went smoothly, so the ship was cleared to come home. Ship had reached orbit on only one earlier flight, Flight 14 on September 28 (Space.com).

What went wrong: the booster

SpaceX had hoped to catch both stages on this flight (Space.com). The booster catch did not happen.

According to SpaceX, the Super Heavy booster relit 32 of its 33 planned engines for the boostback burn. That burn “ended early due to low fuel mass, with the root cause under investigation.” The booster’s guidance system triggered an automated abort and diverted the vehicle to an offshore landing location. It made a landing burn while hovering over the Gulf, and when the engines shut down its flight termination system was triggered (SpaceX). In other words, the booster was intentionally destroyed offshore. Spaceflight Now identified the vehicle as Booster 22, a Version 3 Super Heavy, and quoted SpaceX’s Dan Huot clarifying that the guidance system “was doing what it was supposed to do” and that “it was not a GNC issue that caused us not to come back” (Spaceflight Now).

On the webcast, SpaceX’s Kate Tice said early indications were “a low fuel mass alarm” and that the team was “still investigating the root cause” (Space.com). The Associated Press reported that wreckage remained in the Gulf, cordoned off by buoys (AP).

The FAA’s role

The FAA licenses Starship operations through its Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA). After a Super Heavy booster was lost on Flight 12, the FAA required a SpaceX-led mishap investigation, oversaw it, and closed it on July 13, 2026 after accepting four corrective actions (FAA statements). As of November 15, the FAA had not posted a statement on Flight 15, and we found no mishap determination. Whether the booster loss will be treated as a mishap is not yet known.

Sources

Facts checked Nov 15, 2026.