SpaceX starship's "double capture" was frustrated! Booster explodes and falls into the sea, spacecraft resumes orbit

The American Space Exploration Technology Company (SpaceX) launched the giant rocket "Starship" in Texas on Friday (13th), challenging the "double capture" test of fully recovering the first and second stages of the rocket for the first time.

However, the first-stage booster malfunctioned after liftoff, initiated the automatic abort process, crashed into the Gulf of Mexico and exploded, declaring a setback at the first stage. However, the spacecraft itself still successfully advanced towards orbit and strived to return on Saturday to complete mid-air pick-up.

The Associated Press reported that this 22-hour flight mission was SpaceX’s boldest test to date. Although SpaceX has successfully used the launch tower robotic arm to clamp the booster three times before at Starbase, Texas, this is not only the first attempt to capture the upgraded mass-produced booster for future exploration of the moon and Mars, but the spacecraft itself is also expected to be directly clamped and recovered in mid-air by the robotic arm when it re-enters the atmosphere on Saturday.

Although the booster failed to return to the Texas launch pad as scheduled, forcing CEO Elon Musk's team to revise down its expectations for the mission, the core of the mission continued to advance. According to the original plan, after the Starship enters orbit, it will deploy 26 latest-generation Starlink satellites and orbit the earth 15 times at an altitude of about 275 kilometers. When it returns to the Texas launch site on Saturday, it will face the most critical "mid-air ship clamping" test of the entire mission.

During past starship tests, 14 spacecraft eventually fell into the sea. Some of them splashed down as planned, and some of them disintegrated into fireballs in the air. Although the most recent test flight in September this year successfully entered orbit for the first time, no recovery attempts were made at that time.

Musk believes that only by realizing that "every component of the rocket can be quickly recycled and reused" can it establish a high-frequency and stable launch rhythm like a civil airliner, and then realize the vision of building a lunar base and manned landing on Mars.

The development progress of the starship is also directly related to NASA's "Artemis" project to return humans to the moon as soon as 2028. NASA has spent billions of dollars to commission SpaceX to build a moon landing version of the Starship. It is expected that after docking exercises in orbit next summer, it will make a final decision on whether the Starship or the "Blue Moon" lander of rival Blue Origin (Blue Origin) will carry out the moon landing mission.