SpaceX launched Starship Flight 15 on Friday, but the booster exploded over the Gulf of Mexico after an aborted catch attempt. The upper stage reached orbit and deployed 26 Starlink satellites.
SpaceX launched Starship Flight 15 from its Starbase site in South Texas on Friday, but the booster exploded over the Gulf of Mexico after the company aborted its attempt to catch the rocket.
Both the spacecraft and booster successfully lifted off from the SpaceX South Texas Starbase site. After stage separation, mission control aborted the catch attempt just over five minutes into the flight and performed an "offshore divert" as the booster descended back to Earth. The booster flipped over and exploded in the sea.
"Not sure right now why we weren't able to bring it back," SpaceX's Dan Huot said.
The company has not yet provided an explanation of what went wrong.
The upper stage continued into orbit and began releasing the 26 satellites it was carrying. According to the FT, Starship's upper stage entered orbit and continued its mission to circle around the Earth 14 times over 22 hours and deploy another 26 of the new V3 Starlink satellites for Musk's satellite internet service. It will then re-enter the atmosphere and return to Starbase for its own catch attempt in SpaceX's giant "mechzilla" mechanical arms.
Flight 15 was supposed to be the first time that both stages of Starship were caught. While the company has recovered boosters three times before, it has never caught the Starship. On previous missions, the stainless steel ship has either splashed down safely in the ocean or been destroyed, exploding during ascent or spiralling out of control and breaking up on re-entry.
Developing a fully reusable rocket system is key to SpaceX's goal to drive down the cost of spaceflight. The project has received billions of dollars in NASA funding, with SpaceX also investing at least $15 billion. The main goal of the program is to put astronauts on the Moon by 2028 although outstanding technical challenges could delay that schedule.
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 launched Starship Flight 15 on November 13, 2026. The booster splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico after a catch attempt was aborted, while the upper stage reached orbit and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites.
