SpaceX carried out yesterday, Tuesday, November 19, the sixth test flight of its Starship megarocket. After the success of last month’s fifth launch, the aerospace company hoped to repeat the maneuver of catching the Super Heavy with Mechazilla. However, it has been unable to do so and said part of the space vehicle has ended up landing in the Gulf of Mexico.
Like all the launches that SpaceX has made of the Starship to date, the rocket took off this past morning from the Starbase platform (Boca Chica, Texas, USA). He did so in the presence of President-elect Donald Trump, who watched the 33 Raptor engines start up close, alongside Elon Musk.
Many consider that this new attempt has been a step backwards for Starship, since it has not managed to replicate the successes of the previous flight. While in October they managed to capture the Super Heavy with the Mechazilla rocket trap, this time they had to give up and recover it from the Gulf of Mexico. However, SpaceX classifies this sixth launch as a “success.”
Although they did not manage to rescue the vehicle with Mechazilla, they did repeat other previous milestones. For example, the Starship spacecraft, where astronauts will go on the Artemis missions, successfully re-ignited a single Raptor engine while in space before landing in the Indian Ocean. Regarding the failure with the capture of the Super Heavy, they pointed out that “the automatic controls of the critical hardware status in the launch and capture tower caused an abort of the capture attempt.” That was why They chose to divert it to the Gulf of Mexico so that it landed gently.
SpaceX
@SpaceX
Super Heavy initiates its landing burn and softly splashes down in the Gulf of Mexico https://t.co/BZ3Az4GssC
November 19, 2024 • 23:08
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The successes of the sixth Starship test flight
Although SpaceX has not managed to surprise us this time with the spectacular capture of the Super Heavy rocket with the gigantic Mechazilla pincers, it has managed to make progress in other aspects. As they explain on their website, the megarocket ignited all 33 Raptor engines.
Following a nominal climb and stage separation, the Super Heavy successfully entered its return burn to return to Starbase. In this case, they were not successful in attempting to replicate the capture with the rocket catcher, but they were able to act quickly for a pre-planned diversion maneuver.
For its part, the Starship part completed another ascent that placed it on the expected trajectory. Additionally, it re-ignited a single engine in space, demonstrating its capabilities to perform a deorbit ignition. Thus, it successfully re-entered Earth for a soft landing in the Indian Ocean.
SpaceX
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Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting sixth flight test of Starship! https://t.co/bf98Va9qmL
November 20, 2024 • 00:07
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According to SpaceX, multiple thermal protection experiments were carried out inside. Additionally, they placed the craft at a new, more aggressive angle of attack at subsonic speeds to test the performance of the flight hardware. This way, they can see how Starship will respond when it returns to Earth’s atmosphere and the team has to prepare for it.
The company explains that the spacecraft that arrived in the Indian Ocean performed a turn maneuver and landed with precision. As they explain, the capsule was intact, but it had lost part of the protective material and, in the live video, it could be seen how it was on fire over the water. SpaceX acknowledged that it did not expect to recover it.
Although Starship’s sixth flight has moved forward in some aspects, it has also taken steps backwards in others. For now, there is a long way to go before the megarocket ends up being used for space missions. SpaceX will have to continue carrying out test launches and improving what fails until everything goes as expected. Let us remember that this vehicle will be used in the first manned missions to the Artemis Moon, so it must be safe to carry the astronauts safely.
