SpaceX Starship Flies On After Booster Catch Fails in Test Flight 15

SpaceX sent its giant Starship rocket into the sky on Friday but did not manage to recover either of its two stages, according to CNBC Technology. The vehicle left the company's South Texas site at 4:47 p.m. local time, which is 5:47 p.m. ET.

The booster catch was called off, and the company steered that section into the Gulf of Mexico instead. It hit the water and burned, CNBC Technology reported.

The mission, called Test Flight 15, was the boldest Starship attempt so far. It marked the first time Elon Musk's firm tried to capture both the booster and the upper stage, also known as the spacecraft.

Permission from the Federal Aviation Administration arrived earlier on Friday. A few hours later, the agency ordered a nationwide ground stop after reporting communications trouble at several air traffic control centers. An FAA spokesperson told CNBC that the SpaceX license was not affected by that halt.

After the booster was lost, the upper stage kept climbing toward orbit. It is set to circle Earth fourteen times, and SpaceX aims to bring it down at its Starbase site on Saturday if all goes well.

Success matters for the company's long-term plans to carry cargo and crews to the Moon and Mars. Closer to home, SpaceX wants to place more satellites in orbit to grow Starlink, its internet service and current source of profit.

Starlink already has more than 11,000 working satellites in low Earth orbit. A single Starship can hold as many as 60 Starlink v3 satellites, the company has said, roughly 20 times what earlier Falcon 9 rockets could manage.

The prior test released 26 v3 satellites, and Friday's flight freed another 26. SpaceX said on X that the aim is for Starlink to become 51% of the internet.

William Blair analysts wrote on Friday that SpaceX appears about ten years ahead of rivals on launches. They added that even a failed catch would only push things back by a few months.

Separately, SpaceX faces criticism over limits placed on Starshield, its military-grade satellite internet, in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week that Ukrainian forces were restricted without warning again, hurting their defense against Russian air attacks. Similar limits were applied last month, and some U.S. senators have urged Congress to investigate.