SpaceX will next month make its first attempt to recover the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy booster at the same time. If it succeeds, it would be the first case in history of recovering an entire orbital launch vehicle.

On Oct. 21, The Verge reported that SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk (일론 머스크) said on the company's third-quarter earnings call that it would try to recover both Starship and the booster on the next flight. Musk said that if successful, it would be "the first case in history of fully recovering an orbital launch vehicle" and "a major technological milestone in the history of civilization and consciousness."

Musk did not guarantee success. "Success is not guaranteed on early flights, but on the next flight I think success is more likely than failure," he said. He added that even if it fails, the company plans to keep attempting Starship flights through the end of this year and to increase the number of attempts next year.

Starship is a launch system made up of the Super Heavy booster as the first-stage propulsion system and the spacecraft as the second stage. It is about 120 metres tall and 9 metres in diameter, and is equipped with Raptor engines that use liquid methane and liquid oxygen as fuel. Starship, first unveiled in 2018, is designed to return to the launch site and be caught for recovery by mechanical chopstick-shaped arms on the launch tower.

In last month's test flight, Starship entered Earth orbit for the first time and deployed dozens of performance-improved Starlink V3 satellites for the first time. But during ascent, one Raptor engine shut down earlier than planned, shortening the originally planned mission of 10 hours and six orbits to about three hours and two orbits.

After the flight ended, the Super Heavy booster splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico. The Starship upper stage spacecraft carried out a deorbit burn and then splashed down vertically in the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii while engulfed in flames. Neither vehicle was recovered.

The key to this flight is to determine whether the entire launch system can be recovered beyond reaching orbit and deploying satellites. SpaceX plans to continue flights through the end of this year starting with this attempt and to expand the number of tests next year.