SpaceX successfully conducted the sixth launch of its Starship rocket on Wednesday, November 20 (AEDST). However, it did not attempt to catch the first stage booster in the “chopstick arms” of its launch tower, instead conducting the usual on-water return.
It represented a last-minute change of mind, with the company saying one hour before launch that returning the booster to the launch site for a “catch” was one of the mission’s objectives. SpaceX has not yet said why they opted for an ocean return. The booster landed safely in the Gulf of Mexico shortly after the launch.
Last month, SpaceX conducted its first catch of a booster with mechanical arms but reportedly came within seconds of calling it off because a “misconfigured” parameter meant that spin pressure did not increase as expected.
The success of the first catch attempt demonstrated the design feasibility while providing data to continue improving hardware and software performance.
This Starship flight test aims to expand the envelope on ship and booster capabilities and get closer to bringing reuse of the entire system online.
Objectives included the booster returning to the launch site for a catch, reigniting a ship Raptor engine while in space, and testing a suite of heatshield experiments and maneuvering changes for ship reentry and descent over the Indian Ocean.
Several thermal protection experiments and operational changes will test the limits of Starship’s capabilities and generate flight data to inform plans for ship catch and reuse. The flight test will assess new secondary thermal protection materials and will have entire sections of heat shield tiles removed on either side of the ship in locations being studied for catch-enabling hardware on future vehicles.
The spacecraft also will intentionally fly at a higher angle of attack in the final phase of descent, purposefully stressing the limits of flap control to gain data on future landing profiles. Finally, adjusting the flight’s launch window to the late afternoon at Starbase will enable the ship to reenter over the Indian Ocean in daylight, providing better conditions for visual observations.
Future spacecraft, starting with the vehicle planned for the seventh flight test, will fly with significant upgrades including redesigned forward flaps, larger propellant tanks, and the latest generation tiles and secondary thermal protection layers as we continue to iterate towards a fully reusable heat shield. Learnings from this and subsequent flight tests will continue to make the entire Starship system more reliable as we close in on full and rapid reusability.
