SpaceX launched Starship into orbit after a first-stage booster failed during an attempted recovery at its Starbase pad.
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SpaceX’s Starship reached orbit on Friday as part of its boldest test yet, but an attempted recovery of the upgraded booster ended in failure when the booster fell offshore into the Gulf of Mexico and exploded.
Instead of returning to the company’s Texas launch pad, the first-stage booster was diverted to a point offshore. SpaceX said Starship continued its mission despite the setback and was expected to steer toward the pad Saturday, barring further trouble.
Shortly after reaching orbit, Starship released 26 of the company’s advanced Starlink satellites. The plan called for the spacecraft to complete 15 laps around the world at an altitude of about 170 miles (275 kilometres) before returning to the launch site for a planned finale on Saturday.
Friday’s test was designed to be the first time SpaceX tried to catch the Starship spacecraft after launch, using mechanical arms mounted to the launch tower. It also marked the first attempt to capture the upgraded booster production model—measuring 236 feet (72 metres)—with the spacecraft portion measuring 171 feet (52 metres), together forming what the company described as the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket at 407 feet (124 metres) tall.
SpaceX previously made three booster grabs at its Starbase near the U.S.-Mexico border, but the missed recovery on Friday kept the company from achieving its “double catch” goal of retrieving every piece of the rocket for future recycling. The spacecraft portion of earlier Starships ended up in the ocean, either by design at flight’s end or by accident in flaming wreckage; during the first full-scale test flight in 2023, multiple engines failed to ignite and the rocket’s self-destruct system was activated.
The September test was the first to reach orbit, but SpaceX did not attempt to recover rocket stages. Company officials have said Starship is intended to eventually replace Falcon rockets, which still discard their second stage after launch, while NASA is using Starships for Artemis missions, including efforts to land astronauts on the moon, with spacecraft docking practice planned during Artemis III. After Starship reached orbit, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman posted on X that the Artemis III mission would look to use “on-orbit Starlink capability.”
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