On Tuesday, SpaceX executed another launch of its Starship rocket but opted not to attempt the recovery of the booster with its mechanical arms. This decision marked a departure from the previous month’s successful catch. Instead, the booster was intentionally guided to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico after the flight director determined that not all criteria for a successful recovery had been met, though specific details about the issues were not disclosed by SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot.
The launch took place from Texas, with the empty spacecraft successfully traversing the Gulf of Mexico in a trajectory reminiscent of October’s test flight. The craft was designed to end its hour-long demonstration with a controlled descent into the Indian Ocean.
As the world’s largest and most powerful rocket, Starship is central to plans by both SpaceX and NASA to transport astronauts back to the moon and eventually to Mars. For this flight, SpaceX adjusted the launch time to late afternoon to enable visual tracking of the spacecraft’s descent during daylight.
New objectives included igniting one of the spacecraft’s engines in space—a crucial step for future reentries—and conducting thermal protection tests on sections of the craft that were stripped of heat tiles, assessing potential catch mechanisms for future missions. SpaceX anticipates further upgrades for the next flight.
The launch also saw notable attendance, with President-elect Donald Trump present, reflecting an evolving relationship between him and Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX.
SpaceX’s vision for Starship includes reusing the entire 400-foot rocket, which would significantly reduce costs associated with lunar and Martian missions. The company’s experience with recycling Falcon rockets has already proven effective in saving time and money.
With this latest endeavor, SpaceX completed the sixth launch of a fully assembled Starship since the beginning of 2023, following a challenging start in which the first three launches resulted in explosions.
Overall, while the lack of a booster recovery during this launch may appear as a setback, the ongoing progress and experiments are essential for refining the technology necessary for future missions. Each test flight contributes to SpaceX’s ambitious goals of reusability and establishing human presence beyond Earth.