SpaceX Starship Booster Recovery Attempt Fails “`

SpaceX conducted another rocket launch on Tuesday, forgoing its attempt to recover the booster using large robotic arms.

Unlike the successful recovery last month, this booster was guided to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The recovery attempt was aborted approximately four minutes into the Texas test flight; the reason remains undisclosed. The booster impacted the water three minutes later.

SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot stated that not all booster recovery criteria were met, prompting the flight director to forgo the return-to-launch-site command. He declined to elaborate on the specifics of the failure.

Meanwhile, the empty spacecraft, launched from Texas atop Starship, traversed the Gulf of Mexico on a near-global loop, mirroring October’s test flight. The spacecraft, skimming the edge of space, concluded its hour-long demonstration with a controlled, destructive descent into the Indian Ocean.

This launch represents another step in testing the world’s most powerful rocket, a vehicle that SpaceX and NASA aim to utilize for returning astronauts to the moon and, eventually, Mars.

SpaceX replicated the previous flight path, while adjusting some procedures and the launch time. The launch shifted from early morning to late afternoon to ensure daylight conditions for observing the spacecraft’s descent halfway around the globe.

New objectives included igniting one of the spacecraft’s engines in space—a crucial maneuver for orbital returns. The mission also incorporated thermal protection experiments; certain areas lacked heat tiles to evaluate the efficacy of catch mechanisms in future flights. Further upgrades are planned for the next test flight.

President-elect Donald Trump attended the launch, underscoring the strengthening relationship between the incoming president and Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO.

SpaceX aims to eventually reuse the entire 400-foot (121-meter) Starship. Complete reusability would significantly lower the cost and increase the speed of transporting cargo and personnel to the moon and Mars, building on the successful cost and time savings already realized through the recycling of SpaceX’s Falcon rockets launched from Florida and California.

NASA has contracted SpaceX for over $4 billion to land astronauts on the moon using Starship in consecutive missions later this decade. Musk envisions employing a Starship fleet to establish a Martian city in the future.

This marked the sixth launch of a fully assembled Starship since 2023. The first three concluded in explosions.