The original goal of the Starship flight was to retrieve every single piece of the rocket for recycling, but the first-stage booster malfunctioned upon return.
SpaceX launched the 15th test flight of Starship on Friday as part of Elon Musk’s bold mission to build a fully reusable rocket system that can accelerate travel to space. However, the company faced a setback after its Super Heavy booster malfunctioned during its return journey, exploding into a fiery ball in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Starship spacecraft however still reached the orbit on Friday, where it deployed 26 advanced Starlink satellites. The 236-foot spacecraft, designed as one of the world’s most powerful launch vehicles, is expected to cover 15 laps around the world for a period of 22 hours before heading back to the launch site in Texas, as per the company.
The rocket contains two parts, the Super Heavy booster and the main spacecraft, called the “ship”. The original goal of the Starship flight was to retrieve every single piece of the rocket for the purpose of future recycling, something which has never been achieved before. However, the first part of the double-catch failed as the company aborted the planned recovery and diverted the booster towards the Gulf of Mexico.
What happened during the flight?
Until now, SpaceX had made three booster grabs at the company’s Starbase in Texas near the US-Mexico border, but never actually the spacecraft portion of Starship. The spacecraft of the 14 previous Starships ended up in the ocean, either by design at flight’s end or by accident in a stream of flaming wreckage.
On Friday, the 15th Starship spacecraft lifted off from Texas, aided by the Super Heavy rocket booster that fired for two minutes and 20 seconds to push it out of the Earth’s atmosphere. After reaching the required altitude, the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy booster separated through a process of “hot staging”.
