Starship reaches orbit ahead of return, booster explodes

Updated / Saturday, 14 Nov 2026 05:44

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SpaceX launched the 15th flight of its Starship spacecraft from Texas yesterday, on a mission the company hopes will be the first round-trip voyage into orbit and back to the very spot where it left Earth.

Plans call for Starship's uncrewed upper-stage vessel to re-enter the atmosphere after nearly a day in orbit and return to its launch tower today for an engine-controlled touchdown assisted by a catch-landing mechanism.

SpaceX had intended to use the same return-flight and "chopstick" arm technology to recover the Starship's lower-stage booster rocket shortly after the two parts of the spacecraft separated within minutes of the launch.

However, the booster, for reasons not immediately clear, was diverted from its return flight path to the Gulf of Mexico and momentarily hovered aloft before exploding a short distance over the sea surface.

SpaceX mission controllers hope they will be able to steer Starship's upper stage back to home base at the end of its flight.

Key test of reusability

Bringing the top portion of the spacecraft back intact would mark a breakthrough in the ambitions of Elon Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, to reduce spaceflight costs by developing a fully recyclable rocket system.

The combined vehicle, consisting of the main Starship cargo-and-crew vessel perched atop its Super Heavy booster rocket and standing 40 stories high, launched from SpaceX's South Texas Starbase complex.

The flight marked Starship's 15th test flight since 2023 and the second to deliver a batch of operational Starlink satellites to orbit.

SpaceX reported that all 26 were released within the first two hours of the flight.

That makes the mission both a revenue-generating endeavor for SpaceX's satellite-connectivity business and a test for the rocket ship still under development.

Mr Musk's space and AI business sees Starship as key to expanding its network of Starlink internet satellites and deploying a future swarm of orbital AI data-processing centres dubbed Starmind.

SpaceX last launched Starship in September, taking the rocket and a payload of satellites to orbit for the first time despite some rocket engines malfunctioning in mid-flight.

Return and recovery plans

If Starship's upper stage successfully lands at its Texas base, it will mark the first ever round-trip flight of a vertically launched spacecraft into orbit and back to its precise point of departure.

SpaceX routinely recovers the booster stages of its Falcon 9 rockets by flying them back to separate landing pads or via a floating platform at sea.

Starship's lower-stage booster has been recovered on three previous test flights using the launch-tower catching system, most recently in March 2025.

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