SpaceX’s Starship Reaches Orbit on Flight 15, but the Super Heavy Booster Splashed Down in the Gulf
SpaceX’s Starship lifted off from Starbase, Texas, at 5:47 p.m. ET Friday and reached orbit, but the company diverted its Super Heavy booster to a splashdown in the Gulf instead of catching it at the launch tower.
It was the 15th uncrewed test flight of the giant rocket, and the first time SpaceX had planned to recover both stages at the launch site, a goal the company has called the first full recovery of an orbital launch system. Conservative Daily News previewed the flight earlier.
The full SpaceX Flight 15 webcast is available here. SpaceX is also posting updates on its Flight 15 mission page.
“Liftoff of Starship!” SpaceX said in a post on X that included video of the departure. Dan Huot, a SpaceX official, had told reporters the company was targeting 5:47 p.m. ET and would attempt the tower catches only if everything looked “pristine,” CNN reported.
Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder, had laid out the stakes last week. “SpaceX will attempt to catch both the Super Heavy booster and Starship on the upcoming flight,” he wrote on X. “If both are successful, it will mark the first time that all parts of an orbital rocket return to Earth intact. This is the critical breakthrough needed to make life multiplanetary.”
After liftoff, SpaceX said Starship’s engines ignited and the stages separated in a “hot-staging” maneuver, with Super Heavy “boosting back towards Starbase for a catch.” Minutes later, the company said, “Super Heavy has diverted to an offshore splashdown in the Gulf.”
During the booster’s return, “Super Heavy has 32 engines working,” Huot said, according to CNN, which noted the booster has 33 engines. SpaceX did not detail in its posts why the catch was called off.
The ship kept flying. “Everything is looking good,” SpaceX’s Jesse Anderson said, CNN reported. SpaceX later posted, “Go for orbit! Starship will soon perform a short burn with a single Raptor engine to enter an ~275 km orbit of Earth.” It then said Starship “performs its orbital insertion burn and enters orbit of Earth for the second time.”
Huot said the burn put the ship in a “nominal” orbit and that it would reach about 17,600 miles per hour, CNN reported.
The first full recovery was not completed Friday, because the booster was not caught. If the ship stays healthy, SpaceX still plans to try catching Ship 42 at the tower about 22 and a half hours after liftoff, or around 4:20 p.m. ET Saturday. The flight is also deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites.
Ahead of the launch, Musk said, “You really want to watch this one. This one’s cool. It’s the largest flying object ever made. And then the giant thing comes back. Excitement is guaranteed.”
The Federal Aviation Administration issued the launch license Friday afternoon, Scientific American reported.
This is a breaking story and may be updated if events warrant.
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