On Tuesday, SpaceX conducted the sixth test flight of its Starship rocket, the most powerful rocket ever built. Although this flight saw the attempt to catch the booster aborted, it still marked significant progress for the company, reaching a new milestone in spaceflight. This is particularly important given the success SpaceX experienced during its previous test flight, when it successfully held the Super Heavy booster for the first time. Despite the aborted capture, the Starship spacecraft itself reached several key destinations during its flight.
Historic Launch of SpaceX’s Starship
The nearly 400-foot-tall Starship system, which includes the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft above, lifted off at approximately 5 p.m. ET from SpaceX’s Starbase facility near Brownsville, Texas. The launch was attended by President-elect Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, underscoring Musk’s growing relationship with political figures.
After launch, the Super Heavy booster fired 33 Raptor engines, guiding the Starship spacecraft into space. After a few minutes, the booster separated from the spacecraft and reversed its trajectory, returning to the launch site for a landing attempt. SpaceX had previously made history in October by landing a booster using the Mechazilla landing structure, a set of massive mechanical weapons known as “chopsticks”.
SpaceX aborted the booster capture but landed safely in the Gulf of Mexico
When the Super Heavy booster goes down, the SpaceX team tries to catch it using Mechazilla. However, an automated health check of critical hardware in the capture tower led to the abort of the capture attempt. The inspection identified potential problems that required caution, leading to the decision to cancel the maneuver. Consequently, the booster performed the planned diversion maneuver, started the landing burn and splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico.
This is a precautionary decision, ensuring the safety of the mission and the booster, even if the capture is no longer possible. The cancellation does not affect the rest of the mission, and SpaceX will still be able to collect important data from the flight.
Starship Success in Space
Meanwhile, the Starship spacecraft continues its journey through space, reaching a significant milestone. One of his most notable achievements was the successful launch of one of the six Raptor engines while in orbit. This is the first time a Starship has powered an engine in space, a capability that will be essential for future deep space missions.
Raptor engines are notoriously sensitive and difficult to control, making reignition a difficult task. Garret Reisman, former NASA astronaut and SpaceX advisor, emphasized the complexity of this achievement. The fact that the engine was successful demonstrates the reliability of the Starship spacecraft for future space missions, including planned manned missions to the Moon and Mars.
Re-entry and Starship landing
The mission also included testing the Starship’s ability to revive itself. During the descent, SpaceX chose to fly the spacecraft at an aggressive angle of attack, steeper than usual. This maneuver stresses the vehicle’s flaps — the small wings used to control the spacecraft during re-entry — pushing the limits of the vehicle’s design.
In addition, SpaceX engineers removed some of the protective thermal shielding from the Starship to see how the spacecraft would fare without it during re-entry. These experiments are important to understand how the spacecraft will perform in more demanding conditions, as the heat box that protects the vehicle from extreme temperatures during re-entry is critical to its durability.
Despite its aggressive reentry profile, Starship successfully made a safe splashdown in the Indian Ocean, intact and functional. SpaceX engineers were pleasantly surprised, as the vehicle performed better than expected, proving the vehicle’s resilience and ability to handle extreme conditions.
Starship’s Role in NASA’s Artemis Program
The Starship test flight is a key step in SpaceX’s participation in NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon in 2026. NASA plans to use the Starship spacecraft as a lunar lander, transporting astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon. Starship’s success in this test flight, especially with the engine reignition and re-entry test, is a promising sign for its role in future missions.
SpaceX has won a nearly $4 billion contract from NASA to develop Starship as a reliable and cost-effective vehicle for the Artemis program. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated SpaceX on the success of the test flight, which showed progress on Starship directly contributed to NASA’s lunar ambitions.
Looking for SpaceX to work again
One of SpaceX’s main goals with Starship is to create a reusable launch system. The idea is to recover and reuse rocket parts, specifically the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft, which will drastically reduce the cost and turnaround time of space missions. Achieving rapid reusability is critical to making space travel more affordable and frequent, especially as SpaceX prepares for future crewed missions to the Moon and Mars.
While capturing the booster was unsuccessful, the overall flight marked significant progress in the development of reusable systems. SpaceX engineers and leaders continue to focus on improving the technology, and with each test flight, the Starship system becomes more reliable and closer to achieving its ambitious goals.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which regulates commercial rocket launches, approved the flight despite attempted arrests. The FAA noted that the changes SpaceX made to the flight path were within the scope of the previous approval, so no additional license review was required. The FAA confirmed that SpaceX met all safety and environmental requirements, allowing the mission to proceed without delays or complications.
Future milestones for Starship
SpaceX’s test flights of Starships are progressing rapidly, with more ambitious goals on the horizon. By 2025, SpaceX plans to conduct long flight tests and propellant transfer flights, which will be critical for NASA’s Artemis program. In these tests, Starship will have to demonstrate its ability to rendezvous in orbit with tanker spacecraft to transfer fuel—an essential component for long-duration missions such as those planned for the Moon and Mars.
SpaceX will also undergo a critical design review for the Artemis III mission in the summer of 2025, which will assess the spacecraft’s readiness for a human lunar landing. The upcoming milestone will push the Starship system further and help SpaceX refine the vehicle’s capabilities.
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