SpaceX launches Starship but abandons booster catch as upper stage stays in orbit
SpaceX says it will decide whether to try catching the upper stage, which is due back at its Texas launch tower on Saturday.
SpaceX launched the 15th test flight of its Starship rocket from Starbase in southern Texas on Friday, Nov. 13. The plan was a first: catch both stages of the rocket with mechanical "chopstick" arms on the launch tower. The booster, called Super Heavy, was due back about six and a half minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX called off that catch, and the booster came down in the sea instead. The Guardian reports the cause is unknown. SpaceX's Dan Huot said during a livestream that the company would "dig into what caused that abort."
The upper stage kept flying into orbit, where it is set to deploy 26 Starlink satellites. It is due to circle Earth about 14 times over roughly 22 hours. SpaceX will decide whether to try to catch it at the tower, with a return planned for Saturday afternoon.
Before the flight, SpaceX said it would attempt the catch only after checking the vehicle in space. SpaceX has caught the booster on three earlier flights, but the upper stage has never been caught. The Daily Wire says the Federal Aviation Administration approved the launch late Friday afternoon.
is counting on Starship as a lunar lander.
- 26 satellitesStarlink satellites the upper stage is to deployBBC News
- 14 orbitsplanned laps around Earth before the returnBBC News
- 22.5 hoursplanned time from takeoff to return, per the BBCBBC News
- 171 milesorbit altitude, per UPIUPI
- three earlier test flightsprevious booster catches by SpaceXBBC News
Three sides of the story
10 news outlets reported this
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Liberal3 outlets
The push for full rocket reusability
The Guardian reports that Starship "blasted off" from Texas on Friday afternoon, but the Super Heavy booster, meant to return to the tower, had its return called off and came down in the sea instead. It says the cause remains unknown while the upper stage kept flying toward orbit. The Boston Globe and Yahoo News ran pieces ahead of the launch.
The Globe's wire report calls it SpaceX's "boldest test yet" and quotes launch vice president Kiko Dontchev: "It's so incredibly exciting. It's such a feat of engineering." It says Musk expects full reuse to allow the frequent launches that moon bases and Mars missions would require, and it counts 15 laps around Earth.
Yahoo's own report quotes Clayton Swope of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who calls a fully reusable spacecraft the "Holy Grail" of the space industry. Yahoo adds that the FAA had not given final approval as of late Thursday.
Center5 outlets
A setback for the double-catch test
BBC News leads with a "setback": SpaceX aborted the booster catch and the booster was diverted to the ocean, "bursting into flames as it came down." It quotes a SpaceX spokesperson on the livestream: "Safety is always the number one priority." UPI says the launch fell short of a planned recovery of both stages and quotes SpaceX's Dan Huot: "We'll dig into what caused that abort."
Huot also said the ship had a "nominal orbit insertion," UPI reports. MarketWatch, in a pre-launch piece, quotes an analyst saying "It's hard to overstate the significance" of the flight.
BBC adds that Malcolm Macdonald of the Royal Aeronautical Society says full reusability could change the economics of reaching space, and it covers NASA's moon schedule and Blue Origin's delayed return to flight.
Conservative2 outlets
A historic first and NASA's moon plans
The Daily Wire's piece, written ahead of liftoff, calls the flight a "historic first" and a "monumental attempt" to catch both stages with the tower's chopstick arms. It reports that the FAA signed off late Friday afternoon, that the launch window was 75 minutes opening at 5:45 p.m. ET, and that 26 Starlink V3 satellites are aboard. It quotes SpaceX's website: "If successful, this will mark the first full recovery of an orbital launch system."
It also quotes Musk on wanting "rapid reusability, like an aircraft." The Daily Wire adds that NASA plans to use a version of Starship for Artemis III next year and that any mishap could disrupt its plan to return to the moon in 2028. The Washington Times, writing before the launch, reports that the flight would be SpaceX's first try at catching the Starship spacecraft back at its South Texas site, with the tower's giant "chopsticks" meant to grab both the booster and the spacecraft.
- Conservative outlets did not mentionThe booster catch was called off and the booster came down in the sea Reported by The Guardian, BBC News, UPI, The Wall Street Journal
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- Number of laps around Earth planned for the upper stage
- The Boston Globe: 15 laps
- BBC News, UPI, The Guardian: 14 orbits
All sources: 11 articles from 10 outlets
Liberal (4)
- The Boston Globe: SpaceX aims for first double catch of Starship in its most ambitious test flight yet
- The Guardian: SpaceX Starship megarocket blasts off before expected return for reuse
- Yahoo News: SpaceX's Starship double catch thwarted as booster ends up in Gulf of Mexico
- Yahoo News: SpaceX is trying to solve a decades-old challenge: Making rockets fully reusable
Center (5)
- BBC News: Setback for SpaceX Starship rocket's double-catch test
- Deutsche Welle: SpaceX launches Starship rocket, fails to recover booster
- MarketWatch: SpaceX is about to attempt the ‘holy grail’ of rocketry
- The Wall Street Journal: SpaceX Launches Starship on Ambitious Bid to Catch Spacecraft
- UPI: SpaceX launches Starship into orbit, aborts booster catch attempt
Conservative (2)
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