SpaceX to attempt Starship catch on next flight, with eye on rapid cadence increase

As for what comes after this test flight, Shotwell said SpaceX would attempt to refly a Starship upper stage “early” next year. The company will also seek to complete a long-delayed refueling test of Starship early in 2027. This Starship-to-Starship refueling demonstration is an important milestone for SpaceX and NASA to prove the viability of Starship being refueled in low-Earth orbit for lunar missions.

Refueling on this scale has never been done before, and the company needs to get data on the efficiency of such transfers and the rate of boil-off of liquid oxygen and methane in space. This data will refine projections for how many launches are needed to support a Starship landing on the Moon for NASA as part of the Artemis Program.

For SpaceX, the near-term priority is reaching a high flight cadence for Starship and pushing the boundaries of vehicle reuse to enable it.

A weekly cadence?

Musk, who often offers hyper-optimistic timeframes, said he expects Starship to reach a “weekly” flight cadence during the first half of 2027 and to launch twice weekly during the second half of the year. The key will be how much Starship can be reused.

“The rate at which we launch Starship will increase dramatically as we solve rapid and complete reusability,” Musk said. “At first there will be a little bit of refurbishment that’s needed between each flight, and we’ll iron out the need for any refurbishment such that you can immediately land the rocket and launch it again, just like an airplane.”

That’s the vision, at least. Achieving complete reusability with an orbital rocket has never been done before, so SpaceX’s engineering team will undoubtedly face some significant hurdles. Over time, however, they are likely to get close to the vision of launching, landing, and reflying rockets.

SpaceX will largely focus on its own payloads in 2027 with the Starship rocket. Shotwell said the company would continue launching Starlink V3 satellites, the second generation of “mobile” satellites that deliver direct-to-cell connectivity, as well as Starmind data center prototypes, next year. During the earnings call, neither Musk nor Shotwell addressed, nor were asked by financial analysts, about the controversial throttling of Starlink capabilities for Ukraine in its war with Russia.