SpaceX Calls Off Booster Catch Attempt Mid-Flight, Citing Safety Concerns

Shortly after launching its Starship rocket for the sixth time, SpaceX opted out of performing a booster catch, letting the rocket’s first stage dive into the ocean instead. It’s not the result the company was hoping for, but data from the flight will undoubtedly inform future attempts.

Starship lifted off on Tuesday at 5 p.m. ET from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas for its sixth integrated test flight. The suborbital launch was supposed to include the Super Heavy booster being caught by the massive Mechazilla tower after reentry, but SpaceX declared it a no-go for the booster catch roughly four minutes after liftoff.

“A lot of things need to go well for that to line up,” a SpaceX spokesperson explained during the live broadcast. Instead, the booster had to perform a soft soggy landing off the coast in Texas because not all criteria for a catch were met, SpaceX added. The company cited safety concerns for the team, the public, and the launch pad itself as the reason why SpaceX skipped the booster catch attempt, according to the broadcast.

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Super Heavy initiates its landing burn and softly splashes down in the Gulf of Mexico pic.twitter.com/BZ3Az4GssC

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 19, 2024

The booster’s splashdown was still impressive to watch, as the massive rocket slowed down on its way to the surface of the water before gently diving in like a humpback whale after a full breach. On its way down, the booster lit up 13 of its engines before paring down to only three engines right before splashdown, which took place around seven minutes after launch.

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Starship is on its way down now, picking up speed. pic.twitter.com/DB1EJyKrfu

— Scott Manley (@DJSnM) November 19, 2024

Starship’s sixth test flight did include some other milestones, including the re-lighting of one of the rocket’s six Raptor engines in space for the first time. The rocket also carried its first payload, a stuffed toy in the shape of a banana (check out the image in the above tweet, showing the lone banana), which served as a zero gravity indicator. The Starship upper stage managed to survive reentry and perform a controlled soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean at 6:05 p.m. ET.

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Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting sixth flight test of Starship! pic.twitter.com/bf98Va9qmL

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 19, 2024

Earlier in October, Starship launched for a groundbreaking fifth test flight. For the first time, the rocket’s Super Heavy 232-foot-tall (71 meters) booster gently came down towards the tower, which caught the rocket with its extended mechanical arms like a giant pair of chopsticks.

This year saw Starship inch closer towards operational flights, with each test flight proving more successful than the one before it. SpaceX launched its Starship rocket for the first time in April 2023, but its debut was less than ideal as the vehicle entered into a fatal tumble that forced ground controllers to issue a self-destruct command right before the four-minute mark of the mission.

In November 2023, Starship’s second test flight resulted in the in-flight destruction of both the Super Heavy booster and upper stage, but it was still a major improvement from its inaugural flight. For the third test flight in March, Starship successfully performed a stage separation, completed a full-duration burn of the second-stage engines, demonstrated internal propellant transfer for NASA, and tested the Starlink dispenser door. Starship’s fourth liftoff in June broke new grounds compared to its previous test flights, with the rocket largely surviving peak heating and max aerodynamic pressure during its controlled reentry.