No Starship catch using tower on flight 14, says SpaceX CEO Elon Musk; eyes over 30 launches per day

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday that Starship’s upper stage will be caught using a tower ‘in a few months’, meaning we will have to wait longer to see that happen. On July 25, after the successful controlled soft-landing of the upper stage, Musk had said that his team would attempt to catch the Ship using the tower on Flight 14. The latest update was shared on X, with the billionaire saying it would’ve already been caught if there had been a tower at sea.

“Looks like we will probably catch the ship with the tower in a few months. If there had been a tower out to sea where we practiced landing the ship, it would have been caught,” Musk posted. He also added that the first reflight of the ship—a major step toward reusability—will be either at the end of this year or early next. “That will be a fork in the road of history for consciousness reaching the stars.”

It’s possible that the Starship team found some problems in the Flight 13 mission data review, which was the condition to forgo catching the Ship. Starship has flown only twice so far this year, a slower cadence compared to the four and five launches achieved in 2024 and 2025, respectively. Its next mission—Flight 14—is reportedly targeted for August 28, as per a recent filing submitted to the Federal Communications Commission.

Replying to a post on X about the updated National Space Transportation Policy—signed by US President Donald Trump to boost annual launches and reentries from US soil to over 1,000 by 2030—Musk said that SpaceX is aiming for over 30 Starship launches per day by 2030. This rate will add up to more than 10,000 launches every year. As of August 2026, SpaceX has completed its 100th mission of the year, but most of these are dedicated to Starlink, the satellite internet provider.

Meanwhile, preparations are underway for Starship’s Flight 14. On Wednesday, SpaceX completed a single-engine static fire of the upper stage, demonstrating a deorbit burn for upcoming orbital missions. The upper stage performed as expected on the last mission, successfully deploying all 20 Starlink V3 satellites and achieving a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Interestingly, the Ship was left floating at sea for a few weeks and was eventually retrieved by the recovery team approximately 24 days after launch. The Super Heavy booster, however, faced issues on Flight 13. It failed to relight three of the 13 Raptor engines needed for a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in a hard landing.

More on Starlust:

Elon Musk may consider Starship's heat shield problem 'solved', but experts think it's a 'dead end'

Starlink footage shows Starship firing its thrusters in space during Flight 13; watch video