SpaceX efficiently launched its sixth take a look at flight of Starship on Tuesday from Starbase, Texas. There was no catch at this time, as SpaceX didn’t see favorable circumstances for the try.
Starship took off on time proper at 4:00 p.m. CT, and the Tremendous Heavy booster landed with a splashdown within the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes after liftoff.
Tremendous Heavy initiates its touchdown burn and softly splashes down within the Gulf of Mexico pic.twitter.com/BZ3Az4GssC
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 19, 2024
About two minutes earlier than the profitable splashdown, SpaceX determined to abort an try at catching Tremendous Heavy as soon as once more. SpaceX saved security as a precedence as at all times and determined that circumstances for a catch try weren’t met. It referred to as for a booster offshore divert and accomplished it with no points.
CEO Elon Musk mentioned in a publish on X that he hoped to catch Tremendous Heavy sooner and tougher with this launch, together with three different aims:
The aims for Starship Flight 6 are:
1. Restart of Raptor engines in vacuum.
2. Daylight touchdown of the ship.
3. Greater peak heating (steeper) reentry.
4. Sooner/tougher booster catch.There are millions of small design modifications additionally being examined.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2024
The Banana Payload
SpaceX teased the involvement of a banana for IFT-6 with pictures of the rocket transferring to the launch pad a number of days in the past:
In the course of the broadcast on X of the Starship take a look at flight, it was defined that the banana was symbolic for the first-ever payload carried onboard. A banana was positioned on board for a zero gravity indicator, but it surely was additionally so SpaceX may undergo the approval course of for payloads with the FAA.
SpaceX broadcast hosts mentioned it might familiarize SpaceX with the regulatory course of with the FAA, possible hoping to keep away from the problems the corporate has had with the company prior to now. Additionally, it appears to be an indication that SpaceX is able to begin testing payloads, with launches happening in 2025.
You possibly can decide up a few of the Banana (For Scale) merch on SpaceX’s web site. I’ve already picked what I’m going to seize from this launch:
I may need to get this for my workplace pic.twitter.com/D7GTJ00CpH
— Joey Klender (@KlenderJoey) November 19, 2024
SpaceX may launch the seventh take a look at flight earlier than the top of the yr. The fifth Starship launch befell in October, simply over a month in the past. There’s a risk SpaceX will push the envelope and check out yet one more time earlier than Christmas, but it surely stays to be seen if the corporate will as a substitute wait till early 2025.
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