SpaceX launches Starship rocket on 15th test flight from Texas

SpaceX launched the 15th test flight of its mega rocket Starship from Starbase, Texas, on November 13, 2026, aiming for the first round-trip rocket voyage to orbit and back to the launch pad. The 40-story-tall vehicle lifted off carrying 26 Starlink satellites, which began deploying about 36 minutes into the flight.

What Happened

While the upper-stage spacecraft reached orbit after 27 minutes and prepared for 14 orbits before a planned Saturday catch-landing attempt, the lower-stage Super Heavy booster met with trouble. For reasons that are not yet clear, the booster was diverted from its return flight path to a fixed point over the Gulf of Mexico, hovered briefly, and exploded a short distance above the sea surface. SpaceX has previously successfully returned the 236-foot Super Heavy booster to its launch tower three times, with the last such tower catch occurring in March 2025.

Future Plans

Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 and has invested at least $15 billion of company funds into Starship's development to build a fully recyclable rocket system that cuts spaceflight costs. NASA has also contributed roughly $3.2 billion in funding since selecting Starship in 2021 as a lunar lander for the Artemis moon program. SpaceX and NASA currently expect Starship to land humans on the moon by 2028, though analysts and industry engineers expect delays due to remaining testing milestones like in-orbit fuel transfers.

Context

Reusable rockets represent a major shift in space technology because traditional rockets are discarded after a single use, making space travel very expensive. By catching and reusing both parts of the rocket, companies hope to launch missions much more frequently and at a fraction of the usual cost. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is also building a moon lander named Blue Moon for NASA's Artemis program to compete in deep-space exploration.