SpaceX’s Starship reached orbit during its next high-altitude test after the booster’s offshore water landing ended the company’s planned pad recovery attempt.
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SpaceX’s Starship reached orbit in one of its most ambitious test flights after an attempt to recover the rocket’s booster near the launch pad was thwarted by a landing in the Gulf of Mexico in flames on Friday.
The company had planned a “double catch,” first recovering the booster back for a pad return attempt and then, after Starship reached orbit, trying to bring the spacecraft back toward the launch site for a second grab by mechanical arms on the tower.
SpaceX had to adjust expectations after the first-stage booster did not return to the Texas pad as targeted and was instead diverted to an offshore point, breaking the sequence needed for the full recovery plan.
Despite that setback, the bullet-shaped Starship continued toward orbit, where it separated and dropped off 26 of SpaceX’s advanced Starlink satellites shortly after reaching orbit.
The plan called for Starship to complete 15 laps around the world at an altitude of about 170 miles (275 kilometres) before heading back toward the launch site for Saturday’s recovery attempt.
If the flight proceeds as planned, SpaceX said the test will last 22 hours.
SpaceX’s launch commentator Kate Tice said, “Well, that certainly isn’t the news that we had hoped to hear for today,” adding it matched the company’s “many rigorous safety checks to protect the pad.”
The test also marked the first time Starship would try to return from orbit to be caught midair by the launch tower’s mechanical arms, a step tied to SpaceX’s broader goal of eventually reusing both rocket stages.
The booster catching effort was also the first attempt using an upgraded version of the booster that is 236 feet (72 metres) tall, along with the first attempt to catch a spacecraft that spans 171 feet (52 metres).
Together, the combined system is described as the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket at 407 feet (124 metres) in height.
SpaceX has previously attempted booster recovery three times near its Starbase facility near the U.S.-Mexico border, but Friday’s missed recovery followed those earlier grabs.
Earlier Starship test flights that ended with rocket hardware in the ocean included a full-scale 2023 test when multiple engines failed to ignite and the tumbling rocket’s self-destruct system was activated, and a later September test that reached orbit without attempting to recover any stages.
Beyond Starship, SpaceX said it plans to keep flying its Falcon rockets from Cape Canaveral to carry astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA and from California to launch Starlink satellites, with NASA also paying SpaceX billions to use Starships for Artemis moon missions.
NASA expects to decide about a year before the Artemis IV lunar landing whether to send the Artemis moonwalkers to the surface with SpaceX’s Starship or Blue Origin’s Blue Moon.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said via X after Starship reached orbit that the company was “looking forward to some of that on-orbit Starlink capability on Artemis III.”
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