SpaceX failed to catch both stages of its Starship rocket at a Texas launchpad on Friday when the first-stage booster splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico.
The 15th test flight aimed to achieve a “double catch” by using mechanical arms to retrieve the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage. The spacecraft portion reached orbit and deployed 26 Starlink satellites, according to Yahoo Tech.
But the booster malfunctioned and was aborted during its return attempt.
Booster malfunction prevents double catch
The 407ft rocket used 33 Raptor engines to lift off from the Starbase facility in South Texas at 5:47 p.m. ET on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. SpaceX had previously caught the Super Heavy booster three times. However, The Guardian reported that the booster was aborted during its return and splashed down in the sea.
The cause of the diversion is unconfirmed. Yahoo Tech said SpaceX built ways to bail out near Hawaii and off the coast of Chile into the timeline. The booster is a 236-foot (72 meter) production model for moon and Mars expeditions.
The upper stage continued its mission despite the booster setback. It reached an altitude of about 170 miles (275 kilometers). The 26 deployed satellites can grow the constellation’s capacity by 1 Tbps per satellite. This represents a total boost roughly equal to the output of 10 Falcon 9 launches carrying V2 Mini satellites.
SpaceX missed its primary goal of retrieving every piece of the rocket for recycling. The company previously recovered three V1 Super Heavy vehicles and reused two. This mission failed to complete the first successful recovery of a V3 Super Heavy, which SpaceX began flying earlier this year.
Starship development drives business goals
Starship is tied to the evolution of SpaceX. The company has a market capitalization of about $2 trillion. SpaceX views Starship as a tool to expand the Starlink network and deploy space-based AI infrastructure, TradingKey reported.
Long-term demand comes from orbital data centers. SpaceX plans to deploy up to 1 million related spacecraft. TradingKey said SpaceX has targeted 10,000 Starship flights annually by 2030.
Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX vice president of launch, said at a NASA tech summit last week at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center that scaled-up infrastructure and full rocket reusability is “how you go from zero launches to 10 to 100 to 1,000 to 10,000 to 100,000.”
Elon Musk intends to use the rocket for long-distance travel. NPR said Musk hopes the vehicle will take humans to Mars.
“A Falcon 9 with a Dragon capsule on top is like a minivan. … The road trip to Mars is six months — so you don't want to be in the minivan,” SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said at the All In summit in Los Angeles in September.
On X, Musk previously indicated that once Starship achieves a reliable flight cadence of several times per week, it would be logical to redirect SpaceX production and engineering assets toward Starship.
Starship is preparing for catch Flight 15 is targeting to launch as early as Friday, November 13, pending regulatory approval → https://t.co/K5XRci6bnw pic.twitter.com/WS2xGLjVsx
“Once Starship is flying reliably several times per week, it makes sense to shift super scarce SpaceX engineering and production resources to Starship to get launch rate to several times per day, which means winding down Falcon,” Musk said on X earlier this year.
The recovery process involves high technical challenges. Mashable quoted Shana Diez, director of Starship engineering, regarding the dangers.
Starship is now in a long coast phase around Earth. Teams will monitor Starship’s systems over the next ~21 hours that we intend to be in orbit for. We do have a few early deorbit options available should we need them, but all systems are looking good right now
“We get risks from the tower and the catch arms,” said Shana Diez, director of Starship engineering, in the video. She said their daily logic involves ensuring that risks are always taken in areas that offer the greatest opportunities for learning.
NASA is a key stakeholder in the program. A demonstration mission involving Artemis III astronauts and NASA’s Orion spacecraft is planned for Earth orbit with Starship in the summer of 2027. This will set the stage for an Artemis moon touchdown as early as 2028.
The Starship upper stage relies on about 18,000 ceramic heat-shield tiles. It is preparing for its own attempt to return to the launch site. Yahoo Tech reported the spacecraft is scheduled to circle Earth 14 times. It will spend more than 21 hours in space before coming home.
If the spacecraft passes FAA-approved health checks, its onboard engines will control the final approach for a capture by the mechanical arms at the launch tower. SpaceX shares finished regular trading at $139.11, a 0.59% decrease from the prior session. After-hours trading saw the stock drop 2.05% from the close to $136.26.
Earlier coverage: Watch SpaceX Attempt a Historic Starship Launch and Double-Catch Landing Today (Nov. 13)