Musk says Starship may attempt full rocket recovery on next flight

Elon Musk said SpaceX plans to try recovering not only Starship's booster but also the upper ship on the vehicle's next flight. If successful, it would mark the first full recovery of all major parts of an orbital-class rocket.

In an Oct. 12 Tesla Owners Silicon Valley interview, Musk said the latest Starship test showed that “everything's looking quite positive” and that SpaceX intends to attempt ship recovery on the next flight.

Next Starship launch seen in 4-6 weeks with ship catch attempt

Starship consists of a large lower booster that propels the rocket upward and an upper ship that continues toward space. SpaceX aims to bring both sections back to Earth for reuse.

Musk said SpaceX will try to catch the ship in the air on the next flight, in addition to recovering the booster.

The booster catch has already been demonstrated twice, while ship recovery remains an unresolved milestone. Musk called catching the ship “a super big deal” and said success would make it the first time all parts of an orbital-class rocket had been recovered.

He estimated the next launch at about four to six weeks away, possibly a little before Thanksgiving, though he said the exact date has not been set. Musk said SpaceX is making improvements to the rocket, including work inside the tank.

Earlier flights could have reached orbit, Musk says

Musk said the latest test flight lost one engine on ascent but still did not face a major flight issue.

He said the engine outage appeared to stem from engine computer software and that similar signs were not present in the other engine computers.

Musk also said earlier Starship test missions did not avoid full orbit because of a lack of rocket performance.

He said essentially all prior missions could have gone to orbit, but SpaceX had wanted high confidence that Starship could safely deorbit and return after reaching orbit.

The longer-term goal is to fly recovered hardware again. Musk said that if the next flight succeeds in recovering the full rocket, the following milestone would be to refly both the booster and the ship.

Musk recalls Tesla crises and Model 3 production push

Musk also discussed two earlier periods when Tesla faced severe pressure.

In 2008, he said Tesla closed a financing round at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve and would have struggled to make payroll a few days later if the round had not closed.

In 2018, Musk said Tesla needed to reach production of 5,000 Model 3 vehicles per week or risk bankruptcy.

He said Tesla added a temporary vehicle assembly line in a factory parking lot after two existing production lines had been pushed to their limits. Using the parking lot's slight incline and equipment originally meant for small parts, Tesla moved cars through the line and increased production by 30% in three weeks.