SpaceX Starship reaches orbit after booster abort, first attempt at pad return
SpaceX's Starship entered orbit despite a first-stage booster failure that sent the booster into the Gulf of Mexico, and the vehicle will attempt a mid-air capture at the launch pad on Saturday.
SpaceX's Starship launched from Texas on Friday and achieved orbit even though its first-stage booster experienced an automatic abort and landed in the Gulf of Mexico. The company plans to steer the spacecraft back to the launch site on Saturday for a mid-air capture using mechanical arms mounted on the launch tower.
The test marks the first time SpaceX will try to recover both stages of the rocket at the launch pad, a step intended to demonstrate full reusability. If successful, the mission could last about 22 hours.
After reaching orbit, Starship deployed 26 of the company's latest Starlink satellites and is scheduled to complete 15 orbits at roughly 170 miles (275 kilometers) altitude before returning for the planned capture.
"Scaled-up infrastructure, combined with full rocket reusability, is how you go from zero launches to 10 to 100 to 1,000 to 10,000 to 100,000," SpaceX vice president of launch Kiko Dontchev said at a recent NASA technology summit.
SpaceX aims to begin Starship launches from Florida within months and from Louisiana in the coming years, eventually replacing its Falcon family, which still discards the second stage after each flight. NASA is contracting SpaceX for lunar Artemis missions, while competing with Blue Origin for future moon-landing contracts.