The American company SpaceX successfully launched the final flight of its Starship spacecraft, but did not recover the booster rocket as planned.
The company, owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, hopes to develop a fully reusable rocket system. He planned to recover both the booster and the upper stage, which is the spacecraft itself.
Instead of landing at the launch site, the booster exploded over the Gulf of Mexico. The upper stage is currently in orbit and is scheduled to be recovered on Saturday when it returns to Earth.
It is to be caught by mechanical arms as it lands on the launch pad, marking the first time the spacecraft would be caught after returning to Earth. It could then potentially be reused in the future.
In addition to testing the reusable rocket system, the mission also delivered 26 SpaceX satellites for its Starlink network.
How did the launch go?
SpaceX’s Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket system in the world. Standing 124 meters (407 feet) tall, it is a spacecraft mounted on a booster rocket. Both stages were designed from the ground up to be fully reusable.
During the launch, the spacecraft and booster successfully lifted off from the SpaceX South Texas Starbase. While Friday’s launch was an uncrewed mission, Starship is designed to carry both crew and cargo.
On its way back, the booster veered off its flight path toward the launch site and headed toward a designated area over the Gulf of Mexico where it exploded above the sea surface. The reasons for the failure of the controlled landing were not immediately clear.
“I don’t know right now why we couldn’t bring it back,” said SpaceX’s Dan Huot.
The upper stage continued into orbit and soon after began releasing the 26 satellites it was carrying.
His return to Earth is scheduled for Saturday.
Why a reusable rocket?
Developing a fully reusable rocket system is critical to SpaceX’s goal of reducing the cost of spaceflight.
In previous launches, the Starship booster was successfully recovered. The upper stages of the previous 14 Starship missions all ended up in the ocean, either by design or due to failures.
The new goal of Friday’s launch was to recover both stages of the Starship launch system.
Currently, SpaceX primarily uses smaller Falcon rockets, which are not fully reusable because the second stage cannot be recovered.
Musk said he expected SpaceX to conduct Starship launches once a week by early 2027.
The project has received billions of dollars in funding from NASA, with SpaceX also investing at least $15 billion.
The program’s primary goal is to send astronauts to the Moon by 2028, although exceptional technical challenges could delay that timeline.
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