SpaceX Starship reaches orbit after booster catch fails in Texas test

SpaceX launched Starship Flight 15 from Starbase in South Texas on Friday, but failed to recover the Super Heavy booster in the company’s first attempt to catch both stages of the rocket. After liftoff at 4:47 p.m. local time, SpaceX diverted the booster to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, where it later caught fire. The upper stage continued into orbit and deployed 26 Starlink v3 satellites. SpaceX plans for the spacecraft to circle Earth 14 times before trying to land it back at Starbase on Saturday. The Federal Aviation Administration cleared the mission earlier in the day, and the launch proceeded despite a separate nationwide ground stop tied to air traffic control communication problems.