SpaceX launched a crucial Starship Test Flight 15 yesterday, a major step toward Elon Musk’s vision of a fully reusable rocket.
The ambitious mission was designed to attempt something the company had never done before: catch both the rocket's booster and its massive upper stage.
SpaceX has previously caught the booster and could still attempt to recover the 171-foot-tall upper stage as it falls back to Earth.
The stakes are significant: mastering recovery of both stages is key to the company’s ambition of rapidly reusing its rockets and cutting launch costs by millions of dollars per mission.
Starship is central to SpaceX's ambitions of eventually carrying cargo and humans to the Moon and Mars. For now, however, the company needs it to launch more satellites into orbit to expand Starlink, its satellite internet business and primary source of revenue.