SpaceX Super Heavy Booster Fails Tower Catch and Explodes in Gulf of Mexico
· Technology · India Today, Hindustan Times
SpaceX's Super Heavy V3 booster suffered a malfunction during Starship Flight 15, triggering an automatic abort that diverted the rocket away from its planned recovery tower. The booster instead made an offshore landing and exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, ending the attempt to catch both stages of the Starship rocket. The precise technical cause of the malfunction remains unannounced by SpaceX. The flight marked the first time a V3 version of the Super Heavy booster attempted a return for a mechanical tower catch using the launch site's chopstick arms. Meanwhile, the Ship upper stage continued its separate orbital mission to deploy 26 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites.
Why it matters
The failure to catch the upgraded V3 booster temporarily halts SpaceX's rapid reusability timeline for the Starship program.
Read the original report — India Today
Join us on Telegram
Breaking news the moment it lands. At 10,000 members we ship the Android app.