SpaceX Spokesperson Says Super Heavy Booster Capture Was Aborted

DW.com.

The 124-meter megacohete lifted off from Starbase in southern Texas for its fifteenth test flight, carrying 26 Starlink V3 satellites into orbit, Clarin.com reported.

While the upper-stage spacecraft completed roughly 14 orbits, engineers aborted the capture of the Super Heavy booster after its guidance and navigation system failed.

“The booster was not in the place where it was supposed to be to proceed with the recovery,” SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said, as reported by Clarín, adding that teams were investigating the cause of the malfunction.

The first stage was redirected into the Gulf of Mexico, where it exploded upon impact, leaving the company unable to accomplish the simultaneous recovery of both rocket segments from the launch tower. SpaceX had successfully caught the Super Heavy booster three times in previous tests, with the most recent capture occurring in March 2025, according to Yahoo Finanzas.

Reusing both sections of an orbital launch system remains a primary objective for the aerospace industry to lower launch expenses and increase flight frequency, DW.com noted.

“Achieving Starship getting off the ground is an engineering achievement in itself; catching the upper stage involves millions of moving parts that all have to work to perfection to achieve a successful capture,” Kathleen Curlee, a space analyst at Georgetown University, told DW.com.

The upper-stage vehicle faced severe atmospheric forces during its return, traveling much faster and descending from a greater altitude than the booster stage. To mitigate risks during the uncrewed test, mission controllers established multiple return checkpoints and emergency abort scenarios, including options to detonate the craft over land or direct it toward an ocean splashdown if telemetry indicated a loss of control.