SpaceX Starship Booster Catch Aborted as Rocket Splashes Down in Ocean

At 16:45 local time on Friday, the 124-metre Starship rocket lifted off from SpaceX's Starbase launchpad in Boca Chica, Texas. Six and a half minutes later, the bottom stage was supposed to come back to the launch tower and be caught by the mechanical arms nicknamed chopsticks. It never got that far. SpaceX called off the catch and sent the Super Heavy booster down into the ocean, where it burst into flames on its way down.

During the live stream, a SpaceX spokesperson explained the decision. Safety is always the number one priority, the spokesperson said, and the company is still testing maneuvers it has never performed on these vehicles, so it is making sure each one can be done safely. The company has caught the Super Heavy booster on three earlier test flights, so the abort was a step back from something it has already shown it can do.

The upper stage, called the Ship, carried on toward space. It is deploying 26 satellites that will join the Starlink constellation, which provides high-speed internet from orbit. The plan calls for 14 orbits of the Earth, followed by a return to the launch tower 22.5 hours after liftoff, where a second catch may be attempted. SpaceX will decide whether to go ahead at about 15:15 local time (21:15 GMT) on Saturday.

That decision carries weight. The Ship only reached orbit for the first time in September, and it has never been grabbed by the chopsticks; on earlier flights it splashed down in the ocean. SpaceX said before the flight that it would try a catch only after carefully assessing the vehicle in space, and that there are several points during the flight where the stage can be diverted to the water if problems appear. This flight was meant to be the company's first attempt to fully recover its rocket, a step toward making Starship fully reusable so it can fly repeatedly and cut costs.

Reusability has been a long-held ambition for the company. In 2015 it became the first to land part of a rocket vertically, using a Falcon 9 booster. Falcon 9 rockets now fly more than 100 times a year, and reusing the bottom stage has sharply reduced launch costs. Prof Malcolm Macdonald, president of the Royal Aeronautical Society, says landing an entire Starship could take that further. Full reusability, he said, has the potential to fundamentally change the economics of accessing space. He added a caution: one successful flight will not prove the model, but it could mark a transition from showing that Starship can fly to showing how it could operate.

The stakes extend beyond SpaceX's own finances. The company went public earlier this year, so its shareholders will be watching closely, as will NASA. Starship's progress bears directly on NASA's plan to land humans on the Moon in 2028, a highly ambitious timeline. SpaceX holds a NASA contract to configure the Ship as a lander that would take astronauts down to the lunar surface.

It is not the only contractor. Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos, has a contract to use its New Glenn rocket and lander for a Moon touchdown. Both companies are central to Artemis III, currently planned for summer 2027, in which four astronauts in NASA's Orion spacecraft will attempt to dock with both landers. Starship will need to make a lot of progress in the coming months to meet those commitments, since its development has been far slower than SpaceX intended.

Blue Origin has its own problems. Earlier this year its rocket exploded and destroyed its launchpad in Florida. The company had promised to be back in action by the end of this year, but its return to flight is now delayed to early 2027. NASA administrator Jared Isaacman has said America is in a race with China, which plans to land its taikonauts on the Moon by 2030. For now, the next marker is Saturday's decision on whether the Ship gets its catch attempt.