SpaceX Preps First Reused Super Heavy Booster for Starship’s Next Launch

SpaceX has launched its monolithic Starship rocket 8 times and caught its Super Heavy booster 3 times successful the elephantine mechanical arms of Mechazilla. Unlike Starship’s precocious stage, the booster is present acceptable for its adjacent steps toward achieving launch, landing, and reuse.

In a post shared connected Thursday, SpaceX revealed that it was prepping to motorboat a Super Heavy Booster that had already flown before. The booster antecedently lifted disconnected and returned during the rocket’s seventh trial formation connected January 16, and 29 of its 33 Raptor engines are “flight-proven,” the institution wrote connected X.

Static occurrence of the Super Heavy preparing to motorboat Starship's ninth formation test. This booster antecedently launched and returned connected Flight 7 and 29 of its 33 Raptor engines are formation proven pic.twitter.com/XBOvoZezvJ

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 3, 2025

SpaceX carried retired a static occurrence trial of the booster up of Flight 9, marking the archetypal trial of a Super Heavy Booster that has already flown to the borderline of space, newsman Stephen Clark, astatine Ars Technica, pointed out. The booster, designated Booster 14, volition alert again during Starship’s upcoming trial flight. If it does, this volition beryllium the archetypal pre-flown booster to motorboat again. SpaceX inactive hasn’t announced a day for Starship’s adjacent launch.

SpaceX has been making large advancement with Starship’s 232-foot-tall (71 meters) Super Heavy booster, catching the booster during 3 retired of 4 attempts. However, the aforesaid can’t beryllium said for the rocket’s precocious stage, which has suffered back-to-back glitches during the past 2 trial flights.

During formation 7 successful January, Starship’s precocious signifier suffered an motor glitch that forced an aboriginal shutdown, causing it to interruption isolated and rainfall down bits of rocket debris implicit Turks and Caicos successful the Caribbean. Less than 2 months later, the precocious signifier suffered different large failure during formation 8, spinning uncontrollably earlier breaking isolated a fewer moments aft launch. Both times, the precocious signifier was expected to marque a brushed splashdown disconnected the seashore of Western Australia astir an hr aft liftoff.

Starship is simply a fully-reusable motorboat vehicle, meaning that some its Super Heavy booster and the precocious stage, known arsenic Ship, request to beryllium caught mid-air by the 400-foot-tall Mechazilla tower. So far, things person been looking bully for the booster.