SpaceX’s Starship soars into orbit after booster explosion prevents an unprecedented double catch
SpaceX deployed 26 Starlink satellites and sent the upper stage into orbit, but a guidance problem forced the booster to abort its catch attempt.
- SpaceX launched Starship Flight 15 on Friday, successfully reaching orbit and deploying 26 Starlink V3 satellites from Starbase, Texas at 5:47 p.m. EST.
- Minutes after stage separation, the Super Heavy booster detected a guidance, navigation and control issue and aborted its planned return to the launch tower, diverting to an offshore splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico instead.
- SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot confirmed "we were initially 'go' for a catch, but in the later stages of the coast the booster aborted itself for a GNC issue that it detected." The booster then detonated its flight termination system over the water.
- Despite the booster loss, Starship reached an orbital altitude of approximately 275 kilometers and completed its satellite deployment mission. The upper stage is now coasting in orbit for a planned 22-hour mission before attempting the first-ever spacecraft catch on Saturday.
- The mission advances SpaceX's goal of full rocket reusability, critical for NASA's Artemis lunar program targeting 2028. Previous Starship flights achieved three booster catches, but Flight 15 marks the first attempt to catch the upper stage from orbit.
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The ship orbited the Earth for 22 hours and put 26 Starlink satellites into orbit.
SpaceX Starship re-enters Earth, lands at same spot from which it launched a day ago
SpaceX's Starship spacecraft on Saturday returned from its longest flight in orbit yet to the Texas launch tower it was launched from a day prior, demonstrating the first key recovery of the rocket system's centerpiece vessel in the company's decade-long effort to develop a fully reusable rocket.
SpaceX’s Starship nears end of 15th test flight and return-landing attempt
By Joey Roulette STARBASE, Texas, Nov 14 (Reuters) - SpaceX's next-generation Starship spacecraft cruised around the globe on Saturday nearing the end of its 15th test flight and what the company hoped would be an unprecedented pinpoint return landing...
SpaceX will attempt this November 14th to recover for the first time the second stage of its megarocket Starship, after a technical failure forced to rule out the recovery of its Super Heavy propellant, which ended up exploding in the water. During its fifteenth test flight, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket managed to launch 26 Starlink satellites into orbit.
The objective of this mission was to try to recover for the first time through these mechanical arms both the propellant and the Starship ship, which returns this Saturday.
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