Elon Musk has scaled back his prediction for when SpaceX will first successfully catch a returning Starship upper stage, saying it will probably take "a few months" rather than happening on the next test flight as he had suggested during the company's first earnings call as a public firm. The reversal matters because catching Starship with the launch tower, rather than recovering it from the ocean, is central to the rapid, full-reuse model SpaceX has promised investors and is important for future missions requiring fast turnaround, including NASA's Artemis lunar programme.

Musk made the comments on X, noting that the ship would have been caught had a tower been waiting at sea where Starship splashed down last month; he also predicted the vehicle's first reflight would come by late this year or early next, a timeline the article notes should be treated cautiously given his track record on Starship deadlines. The update coincided with a SpaceX static-fire test of a single Raptor engine simulating a deorbit burn. On the last test flight, the Super Heavy booster made a hard splashdown while the upper stage survived an unexpectedly gentle landing in the Indian Ocean and had to be towed to port. SpaceX expects the next flight to reach operational orbit and deploy Starlink V3 satellites, with reliable orbital flights also seen as key to Artemis III, due in 2027.