ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX launched its sixth test flight of its powerful Starship and Super Heavy rocket from its Texas facility Starbase on Tuesday, but called off an attempt to catch the booster back on land like it did on the previous launch, but was able to successfully refire one of the upper stage’s engines while in space. Liftoff occurred at 5 p.
m. EST from the company’s test facility in Boca Chica, Texas, marking the fourth test flight for Starship this year. The original plan was to recover the booster again back at the launch tower as it did in October, but on its way back down after stage separation, SpaceX mission control called out “booster offshore divert” and it ended up making a smooth return leveling out just above the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and then splashing down.
“It was not guaranteed that we would be able to make a tower catch today,” said SpaceX commentator Kate Tice during a live feed that had more than 5.5 million viewers at one point. “So while we were hoping for it, like we said, it was pretty epic on attempt one, but the safety of the teams and the public and the pad itself are paramount.
We are accepting no compromises in any of those areas.” The payload is a single plush banana, acting a zero-G indicator, and helping SpaceX do a run-through of payload approval processes required by the Federal Aviation Administration that will have to be gone through for future plans to fly payloads like the company’s Starlink satellites. �.