Elon Musk’s Starship soars in successful test flight — despite aborting ‘Mechazilla’ booster catch

Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship successfully pulled off another spectacular launch on Tuesday — but aborted an attempt to catch the Super Heavy booster rocket with the “Mechazilla” arms.

Hundreds gathered at SpaceX’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, to watch Starship’s sixth test flight, including President-elect Donald Trump, who flew down from Mar-a-Lago to join SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

SpaceX hoped to catch lightning in a bottle a second time following last month’s successful catch — a spectacular maneuver in which the reusable booster separates from the Starship spacecraft and then uses its thrusters to land safely back in the “Mechazilla” mechanical claw on the launch tower.

However, engineers shocked onlookers when they made the call shortly after liftoff as the boosters separated from the main Starship body.

Instead, the booster made a controlled splash down in the Gulf of Mexico.

SpaceX did not say Tuesday night what issue caused engineers to scrub the catch attempt, but the company has previously said that if the proper criteria was not met at the moment of separation, it would not risk a catch on Tuesday. 

The Starship section of the rocket, meanwhile, performed a daytime landing in the Indian Ocean — with the company aiming for a more controlled vertical landing as opposed to the traditional belly flop to fully test the spacecraft’s systems.

Despite failing to attempt another catch, the company did fulfill one of Musk’s main goals for the mission, having its Raptor engines reignite while in space — a first for SpaceX.

Starship is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable, saving SpaceX significantly on cost and resources, which would aid the company in reaching its ultimate goal of pioneering travel to the Moon and Mars.

SpaceX has had five previous Starship test flights, starting in April 2023, with each test steadily resulting in progress.

During the first two attempts, in April and November of last year, engine failures derailed the mission before the craft got off the launchpad.

This March, the Starship was successfully launched, but the Falcon Super Heavy booster was destroyed about 1,500 feet above the ocean and did not return to Earth as planned.

The Starship is believed to have disintegrated before its planned splashdown.

The fourth test launch, in June, saw a successful launch and a controlled splashdown of its booster in the Gulf of Mexico and the craft itself in the Indian Ocean.

During the fifth launch in October, the company celebrated a major milestone when the Super Heavy booster rocket flew back to the launchpad seven minutes after take off, where it was caught by mechanical arms on the launch tower so it can be reused.

NASA is pinning its hopes on Starship’s success in order to use the craft for a return to the Moon, which is being planned for 2027-2028.