Elon Musk has achieved a milestone with a completely reusable rocket. On the 15th flight of the mega rocket Starship, the upper stage returned to the launch tower in Texas for the first time after a good 22 hours in space and was caught there with steel arms.
However, the initially planned double rescue maneuver of the drive stage and the upper stage failed. As a precautionary measure, the propulsion stage did not fly back to the launch tower shortly after the engine fired on Friday, but instead went down offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and was blown up shortly before touchdown. This also protected the 146 meter high launch tower from potential damage.
There, on Saturday around 3:20 p.m. local time, the 50-meter-large upper stage was suspended in the air and held in place by steel arms for the first time. SpaceX does not give an exact weight, but industry experts estimate that the rocket stage weighs around 100 to 150 tons. A masterpiece of engineering and a first in the history of space travel. There was loud cheering among SpaceX workers and spectators near the landing zone as the rocket stage floated into place.
However, the technology entrepreneur Musk has not yet proven the complete reusability of the world's largest rocket, Starship, in a mission that should lead to a drastic reduction in launch costs. Nevertheless, the latest flight of the large rocket can be viewed as a major partial success.
It was possible to deploy 26 satellites of the new Starlink generation into orbit for Internet connections and the upper stage orbited the Earth 14 times. The Starship flight in space could be followed live on the Internet in impressive and razor-sharp images. One day, up to 60 V3 Starlink satellites will be launched into space with a Starship launch. The bandwidth of the satellites would then be equivalent to 20 times the capacity of a launch of the V2 mini-satellites on the current Falcon 9 rocket.
The latest Starship mission was eagerly awaited in the industry because, for the first time, both the propulsion and upper stages of the rocket were to land vertically again at the launch tower in Texas. But just a few minutes after the start it became clear that this plan would not succeed.
Apparently the drive stage's return to the launch tower was automatically aborted for safety reasons. The GNC system, which is responsible for the missile's course guidance, position determination and automatic control, detected that the propulsion stage was not in the position required for a capture operation. The system initiated an automated abort and headed for the intended landing point in the sea, said a SpaceX spokesman.
The exact cause of the failure is still being investigated. Elon Musk also admitted: “The booster was a little low on fuel.”
Technology entrepreneur Musk explicitly describes his rocket development approach as one that not only accepts mistakes and failures, but sees them as a necessary part of progress.
Despite the failed recovery of the drive stage after launch on Friday at 4:47 p.m. local time, the upper stage circled the earth several times at an altitude of around 275 kilometers and released the payload. The systems were checked over several hours to ensure that they would work safely for a return to the launch site in Texas. This primarily included inspecting the heat shield, which consists of around 20,000 tiles.
As an alternative to returning to the launch site in Texas, several emergency landing sites in the oceans would have been available. But just two hours before landing, the green light was finally given to attempt to return.
Musk wants 10,000 Starship launches annually by 2030
With the first complete recycling of an orbital rocket, Musk wants to drastically reduce launch costs and allow rockets to be launched at extremely short intervals in the future. He sees the complete reusability of the Starship rocket as a prerequisite for an incredible increase in launch frequency. The technology entrepreneur is aiming for more than 10,000 Starship launches annually by 2030. This roughly corresponds to 27 to 30 starts per day on an annual average. To this end, SpaceX wants to massively expand its Starship launch options.
In addition to the platforms at the Starbase spaceport in Texas, launch towers are currently being built at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The first takeoff from there is expected to be possible from flight 16 around December 2026. The FAA regulator has approved up to 44 launches per year there.
In the long term, SpaceX plans to build a large new spaceport in the US state of Louisiana with ten to twelve launch towers and investments of $100 billion. Construction is expected to start next year.
Gerhard Hegmann is a freelance business editor and has been reporting particularly on the defense and space industries for decades.
