The 124m-tall rocket successfully blasted off from the Starbase launchpad in Boca Chica, Texas at 1645 local time (2245 GMT) on Friday.
It was supposed to catch the bottom part of the rocket – the Super Heavy booster – six and a half minutes later when it returned to the launch tower, but instead it was diverted to the ocean.
During a stream of the launch, a SpaceX spokesperson said: “Safety is always the number one priority, and we’re still testing out things that we haven’t done before on these vehicles, and so we are prioritising making sure that we can perform each maneuver safely.”
The top part of the rocket, called the Ship, is continuing its journey to space, where it is deploying 26 satellites. These will form part of the Starlink constellation that provides high-speed internet from space.
The Ship is due to complete 14 orbits around the Earth before returning to the launch tower 22.5 hours after taking off, where a second catch may be attempted.
Until now, SpaceX has managed to catch the Super Heavy Booster on three earlier test flights.
But the upper stage of the rocket, which only reached orbit for the first time in September, has never been grabbed by the chopsticks. Instead it’s splashed down in the ocean.
Before the flight, SpaceX said it would only decide to try to catch the Ship after carefully assessing the vehicle while it’s in space.
If any problems are detected there are various points during the flight when the rocket stage can be brought down in the ocean.
