Ship 42 Comes Home: Starship's First Catch, and a Few More Litecoin Coincidences

12 hours ago

5 min read

On Saturday, November 14 (13+1), SpaceX caught Ship 42 at Starbase. It was the first time a Starship upper stage had been caught by the tower. Flight 15 had lifted off the day before, on Friday the 13th, with Booster 22 and Ship 42.

A pre-flight LookIntoLitecoin post had already laid out the dates and numbers: Litecoin's 15th year, a Friday the 13th launch, and a ship that might come home on November 14. The ship did come home, the day after Friday the 13th (13+1).

The first Starship catch

SpaceX's official recap is simple. On Friday, November 13, Starship lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on its 15th flight. On Saturday, November 14, Starship returned to Starbase, "and changed everything."

Liftoff was at 5:47 p.m. Eastern. Ship 42 spent about 14 orbits and a little more than 22 hours in space, then was caught by the Mechazilla chopsticks at about 4:20 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. Elon Musk later wrote, "I hugged ship 42 upon its return."

The booster was a different story. The Super Heavy catch was called off shortly after Friday's launch. SpaceX said early indications were that the boostback burn ended early because of a low fuel mass alarm, and that the booster then aborted the tower approach and diverted offshore. It splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico and exploded. So Friday the 13th did not give SpaceX a double catch. Only the ship was caught, and that catch waited until Saturday.

Baby Come Back, and 1977

During the ship catch, reports from the BBC and Space.com heard "Baby Come Back" by Player over SpaceX's landing webcast.

The song came out in 1977, the year Litecoin creator Charlie Lee was born. It is one of those overlaps that is easy to smile at, and it is sitting there in the official broadcast of the first Starship catch.

Elon Musk posted the official catch clip later on Saturday, writing, "Congratulations to an incredible team at SpaceX!!!"

As the prophecy foretold

Weeks before the flight, SpaceX posted that Ship 42's static fires were complete. Elon quoted that update and wrote, "As the prophecy foretold, Starship 42 will be the first tower catch."

That is exactly what happened on Saturday.

A lucky Friday the 13th

Ahead of the launch, SpaceX's Shana Diez posted that a friend had encouraged her not to be superstitious about launch dates, and that Flight 15 was still aimed at Friday the 13th. Elon replied, "Fate does love irony, so perhaps the unluckiest day will actually be the luckiest."

After the catch, Shana wrote, "You can quote me on this. Sometimes it all works." Elon reposted that note. She also added, "Friday the 13th, definitely lucky day to launch a Starship."

A Friday the 13th ground stop

On Friday, November 13, the FAA issued a nationwide ground stop after communications issues hit U.S. air traffic control. Departures were halted for more than four hours, and the stop was lifted around 8:15 p.m. Eastern.

That same afternoon, a page from Litecoin Is a Better Bitcoin: 13 Reasons was shared with a simple line, "Taps the book…" Reason 10, "100% Uptime," talks about what happens when an airline grounds its fleet over a software failure, and notes that Litecoin has never missed a block.

A blue sky, a reflection, and two book covers

Early Saturday morning, before the ship was caught, Elon posted a still photograph of Friday's liftoff with the words "Made on Earth by humans."

The picture is a wide view of the stack rising over the water under a clear blue sky, with a colorful reflection of the plume in the lagoon below. Set beside the covers of The Other Bitcoin: Why Litecoin is Hiding in Plain Sight and Litecoin Is a Better Bitcoin: 13 Reasons, which also use a deep blue field and a mirrored reflection underneath, the two images have a similar feel.

The covers of The Other Bitcoin and Litecoin Is a Better Bitcoin: 13 Reasons, standing on a deep blue reflective field

The two books

The two book covers overlaid on the Flight 15 launch photo

The books over the Flight 15 launch photo

Those books came out on April 13 and October 13, 2026, a pairing already discussed in the earlier Flight 15 post, along with the first Super Heavy catch on Litecoin's 13th birthday, October 13, '24, and the "Don't Panic" marking on Ship 42.

Ship 42, and Litecoin at $42:

Elon hugged Ship 42, and so did Litecoin. On Saturday, Litecoin hit $42, matching the ship that came home.

Three booster catches, and a ship

Elon wrote "Three booster catches and a ship." Litecoin had three blocks too, the genesis block, block 1 and block 2, before it launched on block 3.

The genesis block is dated October 7, 2011. Block 3 is dated October 13, 2011, right at the public launch.

A mirror in '24, and Booster 22

The first Super Heavy catch already had a Litecoin-flavored date: October 13, '24, Litecoin's 13th birthday, on Flight 5, with Ship 30 and Booster 12.

If you turn those date digits around, 24 reads as 42, and 13 reads as 31. The next flight, Flight 6 on November 19, '24, actually flew those mirrored numbers: Ship 31 and Booster 13. Flight 5 had been one step away, with Ship 30 and Booster 12.

Flight 15 has a rhyme of its own. It flew on Booster 22, and Litecoin activated MWEB, the MimbleWimble Extension Blocks upgrade, in '22, at block 2,265,984 on May 20.

A first catch, and a familiar set of numbers

None of this is a prediction, and none of it has to mean more than it does. SpaceX caught a Starship for the first time. The booster was lost on Friday the 13th. A 1977 song played on the way back. Ship 42 fulfilled a line Elon had already written. And Litecoin hit $42.

For the dates, the chopsticks, Don't Panic, and the rest of the pre-flight coincidences, the Friday the 13th Flight 15 post is still the place to start.

Sources:

Ship 42 Comes Home: Starship's First Catch, and a Few More Litecoin Coincidences

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