SpaceX launches Starship rocket, fails to recover booster

US company SpaceX has successfully launched the latest flight of its Starship spacecraft into orbit but did not recover the booster rocket as planned.

The company, owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, is hoping to develop a fully reusable rocket system. It had planned to recover both the booster and the upper stage, which is the spacecraft itself.

Instead of landing back at the launch site, the booster exploded above the Gulf of Mexico. The upper stage is currently in orbit and the plan is to recover it on Saturday when it returns to Earth.

It is to be caught by mechanical arms upon landing back at the launch pad, marking the first time the spacecraft would return to Earth. It could then potentially be reused in the future.

In addition to testing the reusable rocket system, the mission also delivered 26 of SpaceX's satellites for its Starlink network.

How did the launch go?

SpaceX's Starship is the world's largest and most powerful rocket system. At 124 meters (407 feet) tall, it consists of a spacecraft mounted on a booster rocket. Both stages were designed from the outset to be fully reusable.

At the launch, both the spacecraft and booster successfully lifted off from the SpaceX South Texas Starbase site. While the Friday launch was an uncrewed mission, Starship is designed to carry both crew and cargo.

On its return path, the booster diverted from its flight path to the launch site and steered to a designated area over the Gulf of Mexico where it exploded over the sea surface. The reasons for the failure of the controlled landing were not immediately clear.

"Not sure right now why we weren't able to bring it back," SpaceX's Dan Huot said.

The upper stage continued into orbit and soon after began releasing the 26 satellites it was carrying.

It is scheduled to return to Earth on Saturday.

Why a reusable rocket?

Developing a fully reusable rocket system is key to SpaceX's goal to drive down the cost of spaceflight.

In previous launches, the Starship booster was successfully recovered. The upper stages of the 14 previous Starship missions have all ended up in the ocean though, either by design or because of failures.

The new objective of Friday's launch was to recover both stages of the Starship launch system.

Currently, SpaceX is mostly using smaller Falcon rockets, which are not fully reusable because the second stage cannot be recovered.

Musk said he expected SpaceX to conduct Starship launches once a week by early 2027.

The project has received billions of dollars in NASA funding, with SpaceX also investing at least $15 billion.