SpaceX's Starship encounters problems during 15th test flight

A successful launch though failure for at least the first part of the 15th flight of SpaceX's massive starship. After liftoff on Friday the rocket's boosters were supposed to return to the pad but minutes after launch an unspecified problem caused ground control to abandon their plans and divert it to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico. And we just got the sonic boom. Wow. Landing gear shut down. For decades one of the holy grails of the space industry has been a fully reusable rocket system that would allow both frequent launches and drastically reduce the cost of missions. SpaceX had managed to land the booster back on the pad on three previous occasions. Now it must concentrate on the second historic part of the mission, retrieving the massive 124 meter craft after its flight. No easy feat. Getting Starship off the ground is an engineering achievement in and of itself. Catching the upper stage involves millions of moving parts that all have to go right for a successful capture. It would mark the first time the craft will attempt to land on the pad it was launched from after orbit. The spaceship is expected to orbit the Earth 15 times, 275 kilometres above the Earth, Before heading towards the launch site.