ISLAMABAD — SpaceX will decide later whether to try to catch the top part of its huge Starship rocket as it returns to Earth. The company had hoped to catch both the bottom and upper stages of the rocket using mechanical arms - nicknamed chopsticks - on its launch tower.
But the first catch of the rocket's booster was aborted a few minutes after the launch, and instead the booster diverted to the ocean, bursting into flames just above the sea. The top part, known as the Ship, is due to return to Earth at about 15:15 local time (21:15 GMT) on Saturday. This is the 15th test of Starship and the first that hoped to fully recover both parts of the rocket.
SpaceX wants to make the top and bottom sections of Starship fully reusable so it can fly repeatedly and reduce costs. The 124m-tall (407ft) rocket successfully blasted off from the Starbase launchpad in Boca Chica, Texas at 16:47 local time on Friday. The plan was to grab the bottom part of the rocket - the Super Heavy booster - six and a half minutes later when it returned.
A "go" was initially given by mission control for a catch attempt at the launch tower, but the booster activated an automated abort, diverting instead to the ocean where it hovered above the water before exploding. Image source, uring a livestream of the launch, a SpaceX spokesperson said: "Safety is always the number one priority and we're still testing out things that we haven't done before on these vehicles, and so we are prioritising making sure that we can perform each manoeuvre safely." The top part of the rocket continued its journey to space where it deployed 26 satellites, which form part of the Starlink constellation that provides high-speed internet. The Ship is due to complete 14 orbits around the Earth before returning to the launch tower 22.5 hours after taking off.