Starship Makes Orbit Before Return as Booster Explodes Midflight

SpaceX pushed its Starship program deeper into uncharted territory with its 15th test flight from Texas yesterday, aiming for what the company hopes will become the first mission to reach orbit and then return all the way back to the exact launch site.

Under the plan, Starship’s uncrewed upper-stage spacecraft is scheduled to re-enter the atmosphere after nearly a day circling Earth and attempt a precision return to its launch tower today, using an engine-controlled descent and a catch-landing system designed to grab the vehicle.

SpaceX had also planned to apply that same return-and-catch approach — using the tower’s “chopstick” arms — to bring back Starship’s lower-stage Super Heavy booster just minutes after stage separation.

Instead, the booster was rerouted from its intended return trajectory toward the Gulf of Mexico and briefly hovered before exploding a short distance above the water, with the reason for the diversion and loss not immediately clear.

Booster 22 explodes after an aborted catch attempt

Despite the booster failure, SpaceX mission controllers are still hoping to guide Starship’s upper stage back to its home base at the end of the flight.

Key test of reusability

A safe return of the upper stage would represent a major step toward the goal laid out by Elon Musk — who founded SpaceX in 2002 — of sharply cutting launch costs by building a fully recyclable rocket system.

The full stack, with the Starship cargo-and-crew spacecraft sitting atop the Super Heavy booster and rising to the height of a 40-story building, lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas.

SpaceX routinely recovers the booster stages of its Falcon 9 rockets

The latest mission was Starship’s 15th flight test since 2023 and the second mission in which the vehicle carried a batch of operational Starlink satellites to orbit.

SpaceX said all 26 satellites were deployed within the first two hours of flight.

That outcome makes the launch both a money-making Starlink delivery and another high-stakes trial for a rocket system still in development.

Mr Musk’s space and AI business has positioned Starship as central to broadening the Starlink internet constellation and eventually placing a future swarm of orbital AI data-processing centres known as Starmind.

SpaceX’s previous Starship launch in September marked the first time the rocket and a satellite payload reached orbit, even as some engines suffered malfunctions during the mission.

Return and recovery plans

If Starship’s upper stage completes a landing back at its Texas base, it would be the first round-trip journey of a vertically launched spacecraft to orbit and back to its exact departure point.

It was not immediately clear why the booster catch failed.

SpaceX has made booster recovery routine with its Falcon 9 program, regularly flying first stages back to dedicated landing zones or down to a floating platform at sea.

Starship’s lower-stage booster had been recovered on three earlier test flights using the launch-tower catch system, most recently in March 2025.

Mr Musk has said he expects Starship to reach a cadence of weekly launches by the first half of 2027.