Starship's sixth launch flounders as Trump and Musk watch
Starship, the largest rocket in the world, soared into outer space. This was already its sixth test launch. In addition to a group of specialists, President-elect Donald Trump watched closely, accompanied by close associate and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Unfortunately, the attempt was not entirely successful.
The sixth test flight of the Starship rocket, belonging to Elon Musk's SpaceX, was scheduled for Tuesday. The 30-minute launch window opened at 4:00 PM Local Time, and the rocket launched from the Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.
Starship is a two-stage mega-rocket measuring over 121 metres tall. Its first stage is the Super Heavy booster (carrier module), and the second is the Starship, which is the spaceship. The rocket is intended to carry the largest payloads into orbit and significantly reduce transportation costs.
Not only Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, observed the Starship launch from the Starbase, but also President-elect Donald Trump.
There was no success
The test plan called for Super Heavy to safely land at the launch site after being caught by the mechanical arms of the launch tower, known as Mechazilla. However, this did not happen.
After launch, the Super Heavy booster did separate from the Starship, but instead of returning to the launch tower, it landed upright in the water.
The rocket capture was cancelled for unspecified reasons just four minutes after the test flight began, and the booster hit the water three minutes later. - Not all of the criteria for a booster catch was met - said SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot. However, he did not specify what went wrong.
Mechazilla has "caught" the rocket only once
Starship test flights have rarely ended in success so far. During the first attempt, in April 2023, the spacecraft exploded in the air four minutes after launch when it failed to separate from the Super Heavy rocket.
The second failed attempt took place in November 2023. The rocket's upper stage separated from the first, but then it exploded.
During the third flight in March this year, the Starship manoeuvred into the atmosphere from space for the first time. It was destroyed then, but—as SpaceX argued—during the flight, engineers collected a lot of valuable data.
During the fourth test flight on June 6th, a few minutes after launch, the booster separated and then fell into the Gulf of Mexico. The Starship survived the atmospheric entry, and although several malfunctions occurred during the flight, they did not affect the attempt.
The fifth test - on 13th October - ended in full success. Starship survived entering the atmosphere, and most importantly, for the first time, Mechazilla managed to "catch" the Super Heavy booster.
