SpaceX caught the Starship spacecraft with mechanical arms at its Texas launch site after Flight 15, while the Super Heavy booster was destroyed over the Gulf of Mexico.
SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft returned from orbit and was caught by the giant mechanical arms of its launch tower at the Starbase facility in South Texas, marking the first time the company recovered a Starship spacecraft in this way after an orbital flight.
The mission was Starship’s 15th test flight and its second orbital flight. It lifted off from Starbase in South Texas on November 14. The spacecraft spent approximately 22.5 hours in orbit, completing 14 laps around Earth before making its return. During its journey, Starship successfully deployed 26 next-generation Starlink satellites.
SpaceX had planned to catch both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft, a maneuver the company hoped would be a milestone “double-catch.” After liftoff and separation, the booster was supposed to return to the launch site and be captured by the tower’s mechanical arms. Instead, an onboard system detected that the booster was not in the correct position for a safe catch and automatically aborted the attempt. The rocket was redirected toward the Gulf of Mexico, where it performed part of its landing maneuver before its flight termination system activated, destroying the vehicle above the water.
SpaceX initially suggested that a problem involving the booster’s guidance, navigation and control system had caused the aborted catch. Officials later clarified that the guidance system had functioned correctly by detecting the problem and directing the booster away from the launch site. The company’s initial investigation indicated that the booster had insufficient fuel to complete its planned return. Musk subsequently said slightly weaker-than-expected engine performance was responsible.
The Starship spacecraft continued its mission successfully. Approximately 20 minutes after the booster’s destruction, engineers briefly fired one of Starship’s six engines to complete its orbital insertion maneuver. Shortly afterward, the spacecraft began releasing its 26 next-generation Starlink satellites.
After receiving clearance for its return, Starship completed a deorbit burn and began its descent toward Texas. Its successful reentry and final approach culminated in the unprecedented catch by the launch tower’s giant mechanical arms. The spacecraft hovered next to the launchpad tower and slid between two giant mechanical arms called “chopsticks,” which grabbed it out of midair.
The successful return of Starship itself demonstrated a crucial capability for the company’s long-term plans. Fully reusable Starship vehicles could eventually allow SpaceX to significantly reduce the cost of sending heavy payloads into orbit, support NASA’s lunar exploration program and advance Musk’s ambitions for human missions to Mars. The failure of the booster prevented SpaceX from completing its original goal of recovering both stages during a single mission. SpaceX will have to wait until its next test flight of Starship to recover all parts of the giant rocket in a single mission.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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SpaceX captured its Starship spacecraft with launch tower arms after a 22-hour orbital flight, while the Super Heavy booster was lost over the Gulf of Mexico.
SpaceX caught the upper stage of its Starship rocket with its launch tower mechanical arms for the first time, while the booster made a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
