Starship reaches orbit ahead of return, booster explodes

Detailed summary

SpaceX launched the 15th flight of its Starship spacecraft from Texas yesterday, on a mission the company hopes will be the first round-trip voyage into orbit and back to the very…

SpaceX launched the 15th flight of its Starship spacecraft from Texas yesterday, on a mission the company hopes will be the first round-trip voyage into orbit and back to the very spot where it left Earth.

Plans call for Starship's uncrewed upper-stage vessel to re-enter the atmosphere after nearly a day in orbit and return to its launch tower today for an engine-controlled touchdown assisted by a catch-landing mechanism.

SpaceX had intended to use the same return-flight and "chopstick" arm technology to recover the Starship's lower-stage booster rocket shortly after the two parts of the spacecraft separated within minutes of the launch.

However, the booster, for reasons not immediately clear, was diverted from its return flight path to the Gulf of Mexico and momentarily hovered aloft before exploding a short distance over the sea surface.

SpaceX mission controllers hope they will be able to steer Starship's upper stage back to home base at the end of its flight.

Bringing the top portion of the spacecraft back intact would mark a breakthrough in the ambitions of Elon Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, to reduce spaceflight costs by developing a fully recyclable rocket system.

The combined vehicle, consisting of the main Starship cargo-and-crew vessel perched atop its Super Heavy booster rocket and standing 40 stories high, launched from SpaceX's South Texas Starbase complex.

The flight marked Starship's 15th test flight since 2023 and the second to deliver a batch of operational Starlink satellites to orbit.

SpaceX reported that all 26 were released within the first two hours of the flight.

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