SpaceX is looking into why its latest Starship megarocket test flight missed the first of two planned landings on Friday (Nov. 13), triggering an automatic abort that destroyed the booster.

The giant Starship rocket , a massive two-stage vehicle that's the largest launcher on Earth, soared into orbit from SpaceX's Starbase in South Texas on Friday on the company's ambitious Flight 15 test flight. The goal: To land both the Super Heavy first stage and the Ship upper stage, for the first full Starship recovery — and the first complete recovery of an orbital launch system in history.

The Super Heavy stage, called Booster 22, came back to Earth mere minutes after liftoff as planned. Instead of returning to its launch tower to be caught mid-air by the tower's metal "chopstick" arms , however, the rocket veered offshore and detonated its flight termination system.…