Stunning Space Views, Then Historic Achievement As

The fifteenth flight of Starship took off into space from Starbase in Texas on Friday, hoping to attain orbit, deploy satellites, and to obtain a historic first – a catch of Starship by the large arms of Mechazilla on Saturday. 

Here was the liftoff of Starship. 

Liftoff of Starship! https://t.co/lc7UtE6H7z

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 13, 2026

Then there was the hot-stage separation of Starship from the Super Heavy booster. 

Hot-staging separation! Starship’s Raptor engines have ignited, and the Super Heavy is boosting back in the direction of Starbase for a catch https://t.co/GySjTZg7HO

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 13, 2026

The booster was supposed to come back to Starbase and be caught, but they modified plans and had it splash down offshore. 

Super Heavy has diverted to an offshore splashdown in the Gulf https://t.co/1M2xn7NYJA

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 13, 2026

Meanwhile, Starship was cleared to proceed into orbit around the Earth. 

Starship’s ascent burn is full. Starship is now on a deliberate suborbital trajectory as groups examine systems to affirm we’re good to proceed to orbit today https://t.co/N38rluDxtc

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 13, 2026

They also deployed 26 V3 Starlink satellites. 

Starship is now deploying its payload of 26 @Starlink V3 satellites. This deployment sequence will take ~42 minutes https://t.co/h0XEdXub7S

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 13, 2026

The visuals are superb. This was only the second time it is made it into orbit.

Views of Starship in space as @Starlink deploy continues https://t.co/pd6FYvDo0D

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 13, 2026

They had been in orbit for about 21 hours, getting views like this of Africa. 

Starship in orbit over Africa https://t.co/vwkuBpdrLI

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 14, 2026

But then it was time to come home to “Baby Come Back.” While the giant arms of Mechazilla had caught the booster before, this was the first time that they caught the Starship, so that was a historic achievement. It comes in sooner than the booster, so it is tougher to do, but they pulled it off on the first strive, and it is a very big deal. 

Mechazilla catches Starship! Congratulations to your entire SpaceX crew on this unimaginable achievement! https://t.co/YJzmGUZb2B

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 14, 2026

SpaceX’s Dan Huot after the first ever Starship catch: “That was the holy grail of spaceflight, plummeting through fire to be snatched out of the air by steel. We caught a Starship. And now everything changes.” Absolutely goosebumps https://t.co/Y7qat9OM1Y

— X Freeze (@XFreeze) November 14, 2026

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was clearly happy as he inspected the ship he called “Ship 42” (as in the reply to every part in life is 42, per “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”). That “answer” that the catch now supplied can be a large boon to spaceflight. 

Inspecting ship 42 proper now https://t.co/mazv15Dxtk

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2026

If they will catch it like this, it means they no longer need touchdown legs, so they will carry more cargo or fuel instead. It can then doubtlessly be quickly reused, doubtlessly slashing the fee and rising the frequency of spaceflight.  

UPDATED [6:36 PM ET]: The administrator of NASA launched a congrats message for Musk and the entire crew:

Congrats to @elonmusk and the @SpaceX crew! It was nearly magic..Making more believers by the day….one step nearer to 🌖🇺🇸 https://t.co/PYs9yNQMdg

— NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (@NASAAdmin) November 14, 2026

Editor’s Note: Do you take pleasure in RedState’s conservative reporting that takes on the novel Left and woke media? Support our work so that we will continue to carry you the reality.

Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to obtain 60% off your membership.