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Starship’s Booster (and Donald Trump) Make a Splash With Sixth Flight Test
SpaceX’s Starship launch system went through its sixth flight test today, and although the Super Heavy booster missed out on being caught back at its launch pad, the mission checked off a key test objective with President-elect Donald Trump in the audience.
Trump attended the launch at SpaceX’s Starbase complex in the company of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has been serving as a close adviser to the once and future president over the past few months. In a pre-launch posting to his Truth Social media platform, Trump wished good luck to “Elon Musk and the Great Patriots involved in this incredible project.”
President Trump has arrived to watch the SpaceX launch with @elonmusk! ? pic.twitter.com/D5awPUUQTC— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) November 19, 2024
Starship is the world’s most powerful rocket, with 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines providing more than 16 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. That’s twice the power of the Saturn V rocket that sent Americans to the moon in the 1960s and early ’70s. The two-stage rocket stands 121 meters (397 feet) tall, with a 9-meter-wide (30-foot-wide) fairing.
Super Heavy had an on-time launch at 4 p.m. CT (22:00 UTC) and was set up to fly itself back to the launch tower to be caught by the giant “Mechazilla” arms that were successfully used during last month’s flight test. But four minutes after liftoff, mission controllers said the booster had to be diverted instead to make a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. SpaceX didn’t immediately report the reason for the diversion.
“It was not guaranteed that we would be able to make a tower catch today,” launch commentator Kate Tice said during today’s webcast. “So, while we were hoping for it … the safety of the teams and the public and the pad itself are paramount. We are accepting no compromises in any of those areas.”
While the booster settled majestically into the Gulf, the Starship second stage — known as Ship for short — continued on a track that sent it as high as 190 kilometers (120 miles). A plush banana was placed in Ship’s cargo bay as a zero-gravity indicator, and Tice wore a T-shirt bearing the words “It’s Bananas!” to play off the lighthearted theme.
Ship successfully relit one of its methane-fueled Merlin engines while in space, which was a key objective for today’s suborbital test. Relighting the engines under such conditions will be required in the future for Ship’s orbital maneuvers.
A little more than an hour after launch, Ship’s engines fired for a final time to make a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The daylight visuals, plus other data collected during the flight, will help SpaceX’s team fine-tune Starship’s design for future tests.
SpaceX plans to use Starship to accelerate deployment of its Starlink broadband satellites, as well as to fly missions beyond Earth orbit. The company has a $2.9 billion contract from NASA to provide a version of Starship that’s customized for lunar landings, starting as early 2026. And Musk has said Starship could take on uncrewed missions starting that same year — with the first crewed mission set for launch in 2028 if everything goes right.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson referred to those future flights in a message on Musk’s X social-media platform:
Congrats to @SpaceX on Starship's sixth test flight. Exciting to see the Raptor engine restart in space—major progress towards orbital flight.Starship’s success is #Artemis’ success. Together, we will return humanity to the Moon & set our sights on Mars. pic.twitter.com/tuwpGOvT9S— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) November 19, 2024
Check out these other postings tracking the progress of the flight test:
With data and flight learnings as our primary payload, Starship’s sixth flight test once again delivered ? https://t.co/oIFc3u9laE pic.twitter.com/O6ZKThQRr6— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 20, 2024
Super Heavy initiates its landing burn and softly splashes down in the Gulf of Mexico pic.twitter.com/BZ3Az4GssC— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 19, 2024
Starship’s Raptor engine burn is complete and Starship has entered a coast phase pic.twitter.com/xJHlg2eDTs— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 19, 2024
Live views of Earth from Starship pic.twitter.com/3rgsHSj2km— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 19, 2024
Starship preparing to splash down in the Indian Ocean pic.twitter.com/EN9jibr07l— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 19, 2024
Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting sixth flight test of Starship! pic.twitter.com/bf98Va9qmL— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 19, 2024
The post Starship’s Booster (and Donald Trump) Make a Splash With Sixth Flight Test appeared first on Universe Today.
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