Trump, Musk witness Starship's splashdown misadventure
Starship, the largest rocket in the world, soared into outer space. This was already the sixth test launch. In addition to a group of specialists, President-elect Donald Trump watched closely, accompanied by SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Unfortunately, the attempt was not entirely successful.
7:36 AM EST, November 20, 2024
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 397 feet. Its first stage is the Super Heavy booster, and the second stage is Starship, which is the spaceship. The rocket is intended to carry the largest payloads into orbit and significantly reduce transportation costs.
Both Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, and President-elect Donald Trump observed the Starship launch from the Starbase.
There was no success
The test plan called for the safe landing of Super Heavy 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 canceled 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 succeeded 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 stage, but then it exploded.
During its third flight in March this year, Starship performed the maneuver of entering 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 6, a few minutes after launch, the booster separated and then fell into the Gulf of Mexico. The Starship survived re-entering the atmosphere, and although several malfunctions occurred during the flight, they did not affect the attempt.
The fifth test, on October 13, ended in full success. Starship survived re-entering the atmosphere, and most importantly, for the first time, Mechazilla managed to "catch" the Super Heavy booster.
