SpaceX aborts booster recovery as Starship reaches orbit

Résumé détaillé

A problem with the Super Heavy booster forced SpaceX to divert it into the Gulf of Mexico minutes after lift-off on Starship’s 15th test flight.

An unspecified problem forced Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Friday to abort the recovery of the booster for the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket, the Starship, but the company hoped it could yet pull off a first-ever “catch” of the spaceship.

The 124-metre (407-foot) Starship roared into the sky from Starbase in southern Texas for its 15th test flight, but minutes later, the landmark nature of the mission went awry.

After lift-off and the mid-air separation of the two stages, an issue with the Super Heavy booster forced SpaceX to divert it to an “offshore splashdown”, scuttling what would have been a groundbreaking twin capture of both components of the rocket.

A fireball erupted as the booster fell into the Gulf of Mexico near the launch site, with a section sticking out vertically afterwards.

“Not sure right now why we weren’t able to bring it back,” SpaceX’s Dan Huot said.

Meanwhile, the Starship spacecraft that gives the rocket system its name entered Earth’s orbit, where it was expected to circle the globe 14 times before returning on Saturday.

Successful recoveries of both Starship and its booster would have marked a milestone in the space industry’s decades-long pursuit of fully reusable rocket systems that can drastically reduce mission costs and make frequent launches possible.

Clayton Swope, an aerospace expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, called the mission a “mixed bag so far” after the failure to catch the Super Heavy, something SpaceX has done three times previously.

“At least the Starship made it to orbit, like on the last test flight,” he said.

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