SpaceX launched its 15th Starship test flight on Friday, the company’s first attempt to catch both the Super Heavy booster and upper stage spacecraft of the rocket at its launch site in Starbase, Texas.
The flight lifted off at 4:47 p.m. local time, or 5:47 p.m. ET. Earlier on Friday, SpaceX obtained authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration. Hours later, the FAA issued a nationwide ground stop after reporting communication problems affecting “multiple” air traffic control centers. The SpaceX license wasn’t effected by the flight stoppage, a spokesperson for the FAA told CNBC.
SpaceX, which began test flights of its massive Starship rocket in 2023, had to abort plans to catch and reuse the booster, instead diverting it to splash into the ocean.
Starship’s success is critical to Elon Musk’s company and its ambitions to eventually lift cargo and people to the surface of the Moon and Mars. In the near-term, SpaceX needs to send more satellites into orbit to expands its Starlink satellite internet service, which is currently the company’s profit center.
With Friday’s test flight, SpaceX plans to release a batch of its new Starlink v3 satellites into orbit. The company’s constellation already includes over 11,000 active satellites in low Earth orbit. One Starship rocket has the capacity to carry up to 60 Starlink v3 satellites into orbit, the company has said, representing about 20 times the capacity of earlier Falcon 9 rockets.
In the previous Starship test flight, the company released 26 Starlink v3 satellites, and was planning to release another 26 in the Friday test flight with the goal of “Starlink becoming 51% of the internet,” SpaceX said in a post on X.
When it comes to launches, “SpaceX is likely a full decade ahead of peers on this front,” William Blair analysts wrote in a note out on Friday. “Even if tonight’s catch is unsuccessful, a delay by a few months is not that consequential.”
Meanwhile, SpaceX is facing fresh criticism over restrictions imposed on its Starshield satellite internet service in Ukraine. Starshield is built on Starlink technology and is the military-tier of SpaceX’s satellite internet service.
Earlier this week, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country’s military forces had experienced limits on Starshield without warning again, harming their ability to defend against Russia’s ongoing aerial attacks. Similar limits on Starshield in Ukraine were temporarily imposed last month.
Some U.S. Senators have condemned the restrictions, and urged Congress to investigate SpaceX.
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