Starship Completes 6th Test Flight

'Chopsticks' weren't used to catch booster this time
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 19, 2024 4:27 PM CST
Updated Nov 19, 2024 5:40 PM CST
With Trump Looking on, Starship Takes Off
President-elect Trump walks with Elon Musk before the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas.   (Brandon Bell/Pool via AP)

With President-elect Trump and Elon Musk looking on, the sixth Starship test flight took off Tuesday from SpaceX's launch site in southern Texas. The Super Heavy booster splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico minutes after the 5pm Eastern launch, the BBC reports. SpaceX had initially planned to catch the booster with the launch tower's giant mechanical "chopsticks," as it did during a test flight last month. "We did mention that we're constantly evaluating the criteria for catch. There's a lot of things that need to go well in order to line that up," a SpaceX commentator said, per Reuters. "Unfortunately, today we will forgo booster catch." The catch was called off four minutes into the flight, the AP reports.

The top half of Starship splashed down in the Indian Ocean around an hour after launch. The upper stage appeared to split into two halves and SpaceX does not expect to recover them, the Guardian reports. Starship lights up its six engines after separating from the booster, and the test flight included an attempt to fire up one of the engines for a second time, CNN reports. "This is really important, something they haven't done before," says former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman. "They're finicky little beasts, and it's not so easy to light them up and shut them down and light them up again," Reisman, a SpaceX consultant, tells CNN. In another test, thermal shielding was removed from some parts of the spacecraft to see if catch mechanisms could be placed there in future flights.

"I'm heading to the Great State of Texas to watch the launch of the largest object ever to be elevated, not only to Space, but simply by lifting off the ground. Good luck to ElonMusk and the Great Patriots involved in this incredible project!" Trump said in a Truth Social post earlier Tuesday.

This story has been updated with new developments. (More Starship stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X