Catching the Uncatchable: Starship's Boldest Test Yet
About this episode
This episode discusses SpaceX's upcoming Flight 14 of the Starship and the delays of China's Chang'e-7 mission.
Today's episode — S05E182, Tuesday September 1, 2026: Main story: SpaceX cleared Booster 21's static fire at Starbase's Pad 2 on August 30, the last major milestone before Starship Flight 14 — the third flight of the Starship V3 design. Ship 41 had already completed its own static fire campaign at Massey's Test Site. Flight 14 will attempt something no Starship flight has done before: catching the ship itself, not just the Super Heavy booster, with the launch tower's upgraded "chopstick" arms. Pad 2 received expanded propellant storage, additional pumps and faster-moving catch hardware ahead of the attempt. The flight follows directly on from Flight 13's Ship 40, which survived a dramatic, unplanned float in the Indian Ocean after splashdown before finally beginning its journey home to Starbase on August 30. A firm Flight 14 launch date is still pending FAA and range approvals, with current expectation pointing to sometime in September. Chang'e-7 slips to early 2027. China's four-vehicle lunar south pole mission — rolled back to the vehicle assembly building on August 24, hours before its scheduled launch — has now been retargeted to early 2027 (February–March windows), a far…
More episodes of Astronomy Daily: Latest Space News
- Half the Neutron Stars
- A Hundred and Nine Flashes
- The Smallest Things Remember
- The Moon in Five Hours
- Europe Launches From Europe — And Two White Dwarfs Six Minutes Apart
- The Hydrogen Map: How a Radio Telescope Heard Half the Universe
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Astronomy Daily: Latest Space News podcast page.