SpaceX Starship Flight 15: Aiming for Historic First Upper Stage Catch

SpaceX launched the 15th test flight of its Starship megarocket from South Texas on Friday, aiming to catch both rocket stages.

The 407-foot vehicle lifted off from the company’s Starbase facility at 5:47 p.m. ET, according to Space.com.

The flight plan required the Super Heavy booster to return to the launch tower about six and a half minutes after liftoff for a mechanical arm retrieval, while the upper-stage Starship entered low Earth orbit to deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites, TESLARATI reported.

That booster catch was aborted due to an onboard guidance issue, forcing the bottom half of the rocket to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico instead, CBC reported.

“That certainly isn’t the news that we had hoped to hear for today,” said Kate Tice, SpaceX’s director of quality management, noting the booster’s return followed rigorous safety checks.

Starship Reaches Low Earth Orbit for the Second Time

Following the booster diversion, the upper-stage Starship continued its ascent to an altitude of roughly 275 kilometers. A second engine burn parked the vehicle in low Earth orbit, marking the second time a Starship has reached orbit, according to Space.com.

The spacecraft was scheduled to circle the Earth 14 times over more than 22 hours.

Three of the deployed Starlink V3 satellites carry specialized cameras to inspect the ship’s heat shield before it attempts a return to Texas, TESLARATI reported.

“We’ve got a nominal orbit insertion, so Starship now in orbit around Earth for the second time ever,” said Dan Huot during the SpaceX launch webcast.

Reusable Rocket Economics

“the first time that an orbital launch vehicle has been fully recovered” is how Elon Musk described a successful double catch, according to SpaceX's third quarter earnings webcast. While SpaceX routinely lands the first-stage boosters of its Falcon 9 rocket, the upper stage of that vehicle is discarded into the ocean after each flight.

Starship is designed for complete reusability, a capability required for SpaceX’s plans to service its satellite constellations and support NASA’s Artemis lunar missions.

NASA selected Starship as a crewed lunar lander, with demonstration flights scheduled ahead of future moon landings, according to Space.com.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop and temporary airspace pauses for flights from Hawaii to the West Coast during Friday’s launch due to upper-stage debris trajectories, The Guardian reported.

SpaceX reserved three contingency checkpoints during the mission to allow for an early Pacific Ocean return if engineers deemed the final tower catch unfeasible.

Earlier coverage: SpaceX to Attempt Historic Double Catch of Starship and Super Heavy Booster

More on this story: SpaceX Fails to Catch Starship Booster During Test Flight