Science correspondent There are so many things that have to be exactly right to successfully catch a rocket booster the size of a 20-story building as it slows down from supersonic speed at the launch tower. In the previous successful attempt, flight engineers were just one second from aborting. For the catch to be attempted, flight engineers have to give a verbal “Go” for both the tower and the booster. Today, there was a "Go" for the tower. So initial indications are that there may have been an issue with the booster section, and the flight team followed its procedures and sent it for a safe splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Although the failure to reproduce the catch will be disappointing, SpaceX has made rapid progress in developing Starship since its very first test flight, which was only 19 months ago. The firm’s approach is to test fast, fail fast and learn fast in its effort to build a fully reusable spacecraft to send astronauts to the Moon and then on to Mars. Share