SpaceX launches new V3 Starlink satellites but suffers another booster failure

SpaceX successfully deployed the first third-generation Starlink satellites on Friday using an upgraded version of its Starship prototype — the 13th test flight of its massive rocket to date. But the company suffered another failure with its super-heavy booster during a planned landing simulation in the Gulf of Mexico.

This is the second time the company has had an issue with the Super Heavy booster in this V3 version of Starship. In May, on the maiden flight of Starship V3, SpaceX experienced a malfunction of the spacecraft’s Super Heavy booster as it separated from the rocket’s upper stage. SpaceX was able to perform a landing simulation of the Starship upper stage during launch on Friday after it deployed its Starlink satellites.

The launch came just over a week after SpaceX attempted to conduct its 13th launch of the spacecraft. That attempt had to be aborted immediately after ignition due to a number of rocket engine malfunctions. SpaceX said it replaced six engines before Friday’s flight to fix the problem.

During Friday’s launch, the rocket traveled farther on its planned flight but was unable to properly fire all the engines needed to simulate the landing. The booster exploded after hitting the water faster than expected.

It was the first Starship launch since SpaceX went public in June in the largest initial public offering in history. In a test of SpaceX’s “fly, fail, fix” approach to spacecraft development, the company saw its stock fall last week the day after a launch was aborted. The decline is part of a larger downtrend since the IPO that saw the company’s shares fall from a peak of more than $200 a share to $115 at the close of trading on Friday. In after-hours trading, SpaceX shares fell another 2% after the booster failed, before paring some of those losses.

SpaceX had better luck with the Starship V3 upper stage during Friday’s launch. The upper stage lost a rocket motor during the first V3 launch in May. That didn’t happen this time, as Starship had no problems deploying the new Starlinks. The ship, as the company calls it, was able to survive the harsh forces caused by re-entry into the atmosphere and perform a simulated landing in the Indian Ocean about an hour after take-off.

Unlike previous spacecraft missions, the ship did not explode when it capsized in the water. Instead, the ship floated in the water, giving SpaceX an opportunity to use a drone to closely examine the heat shield tiles on its belly.

The new Starlink satellites burned up in the atmosphere about 20 minutes after deployment, with Starship still unable to reach Earth’s orbit. SpaceX was able to communicate with all of them while they were in space, marking a step forward for this program, which is the only profitable part of the company’s business.

The ability to deploy more capable Starlink V3 satellites improves the economics of the company’s capital-hungry satellite Internet network. SpaceX said the launch of 60 new Starship satellites represents a “potential twenty-fold increase” in deployed downlink capacity versus that launched by a single Falcon 9 rocket.

However, it’s not clear whether SpaceX could achieve these gains if Starship used the Super Heavy booster instead of reusing it. Without a fully reusable spacecraft, progress on Starlink “will be slower and more expensive,” SpaceX’s S-1 said.

With assistance from Tim Fernholz.