SpaceX’s Starship reached orbit and deployed 26 Starlink satellites on Friday, November 13, but the mission did not achieve its planned recovery of the rocket’s booster. The booster ended up in the Gulf of Mexico instead of returning to the launch site in Texas.
The uncrewed flight lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility. The company had planned to recover both parts of the 124-meter (407-foot) rocket system: the Super Heavy booster and the upper stage, which is the spacecraft itself.
SpaceX did not immediately explain why the booster failed to return. “Not sure right now why we weren’t able to bring it back,” company representative Dan Huot said, according to DW.
The upper stage continued into orbit and began releasing its 26 Starlink satellites. It was scheduled to return to Earth on Saturday, November 14, with SpaceX planning to use mechanical arms at the launch pad to catch it. The attempt would be the first planned recovery of a returning Starship upper stage.
A test of the reusable system
SpaceX is developing Starship as a fully reusable system, with the aim of lowering the cost of spaceflight. The company has recovered Starship boosters on earlier flights, but the upper stages of its 14 previous missions ended in the ocean, either by design or after failures.
SpaceX currently relies mainly on its smaller Falcon rockets, whose second stages cannot be recovered. The Starship flight tested whether both stages could be brought back for potential reuse, but the booster’s missed return left that goal unachieved on Friday.