SpaceX recovers Starship upper stage after booster explosion in Test Flight 15

SpaceX recovered the upper stage of its Starship rocket on Saturday after the booster exploded during Friday’s Test Flight 15. The upper stage was caught by the tower’s mechanical arms, nicknamed “chopsticks,” at the Starbase facility in Texas. The rocket’s booster failed to be caught, was steered to an offshore splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico and detonated before hitting the water. After the explosion, the upper stage completed 14 orbits around Earth before landing on the launch tower known as Mechazilla. Elon Musk shared a video on X showing the captured spacecraft. The Hawaii Department of Transportation briefly halted some West Coast flights on Friday because of debris concerns, and the FAA issued a short‑lived nationwide ground stop due to telecom failures; both orders have since been lifted. Recovering both parts of Starship is key to making the vehicle fully reusable, a goal that underpins SpaceX’s plan to launch more Starlink v3 satellites and to support NASA’s lunar missions. During the same flight, SpaceX released 26 new Starlink v3 satellites, adding to a constellation that already exceeds 11,000 low‑Earth‑orbit units. A single Starship can carry up to 60 Starlink v3 satellites, according to the company.

Context

Reusable rockets lower launch costs, which helps expand satellite internet coverage and paves the way for future Moon and Mars missions.