The key facts

  • The Starship booster deviated from its course toward the launch pad and exploded over the Gulf of Mexico; the cause was not stated
  • The upper stage reached orbit and deployed 26 Starlink satellites; its return is scheduled for Saturday
  • The program's goal is a fully reusable rocket and landing astronauts on the Moon by 2028

Successful launch and loss of the booster

Elon Musk's company SpaceX carried out another launch of the Starship spacecraft: the upper stage successfully reached orbit, but the booster could not be recovered as planned. This was reported by Deutsche Welle. Instead of returning to the launch pad, the booster deviated from its trajectory and exploded over the surface of the Gulf of Mexico in a designated area. The reasons for the failure of the controlled landing were not immediately stated: 'I'm not sure right now why we weren't able to bring it back,' said SpaceX representative Dan Huot.

For the first time — recovery of the upper stage

The main feature of this flight was a new goal: for the first time, the company attempted to recover both stages of the system. Previously, boosters had been successfully recovered, but all the upper stages of the 14 previous Starship missions ended their flights in the ocean — either by plan or due to accidents. The upper stage of the current flight is in orbit and is expected to return to Earth on Saturday: it is planned to be caught by mechanical arms during landing near the launch pad — this would be the first return of the spacecraft itself to Earth and a potential opportunity for its reuse. In addition to testing the reusable system, the mission delivered 26 SpaceX satellites for the Starlink network.

Why reusability matters

Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket system in the world, standing 124 meters tall, and both of its stages were originally designed to be fully reusable. Full reusability is key to SpaceX's goal of reducing the cost of spaceflight: currently the company mainly uses the smaller Falcon rockets, whose second stage is not recovered. The program has received billions of dollars in funding from NASA, and SpaceX itself has invested at least 15 billion dollars. The main goal is to land astronauts on the Moon by 2028, although unresolved technical problems could shift that schedule. According to the publication, Musk expects that by early 2027 SpaceX will be conducting Starship launches once a week.