SpaceX’s ambitious Starship program encountered a hurdle as the company launched another test flight without attempting to catch the booster upon return.
On Tuesday, SpaceX launched its Starship rocket from Texas, but instead of capturing the booster with their giant mechanical arms—nicknamed “chopsticks”—the booster was directed to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico. The decision to forgo the booster catch was made just minutes into the flight due to unspecified reasons.
According to SpaceX representatives, not all criteria required for a successful booster catch were met, prompting the flight director to abort the catch attempt. The booster splashed down safely in the Gulf three minutes after the decision was made.
The Starship spacecraft continued its journey, soaring across the Gulf of Mexico and skimming the edge of space. It was a controlled test flight aiming to collect data for future missions that plan to take astronauts back to the Moon and eventually to Mars.
This test flight followed a similar path to previous launches but incorporated new objectives, including igniting one of the spacecraft’s engines in space—an essential step for returning from orbit. The spacecraft also featured thermal protection experiments, with some areas deliberately left without heat tiles to test their resilience.
SpaceX’s ultimate goal is to create a fully reusable Starship system. Successfully catching and reusing both the booster and the spacecraft would significantly reduce the cost of space travel, making missions to the Moon and Mars more feasible.
NASA has invested heavily in SpaceX’s Starship, awarding the company contracts worth billions to land astronauts on the lunar surface later this decade. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk envisions a future where fleets of Starships enable the colonization of Mars.
This launch marks another step in SpaceX’s journey to revolutionize space travel, despite the challenges faced. The company plans further upgrades and tests in the coming months as it moves closer to its ambitious goals.
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SpaceX launches Starship rocket but aborts booster catch attempt
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