Starship performs double ocean landing in daylight, SpaceX shy to show the explosions [Update]

The article was updated to include available post-flight information.

SpaceX didn’t attempt a second Mechazilla catch during Tuesday's successful sixth test flight of Starship. The Super Heavy booster was apparently not prepared for the maneuver, thus the Flight Director didn’t send the necessary manual command.

Instead, the booster defaulted to a safer trajectory toward the waters of the Gulf of Mexico where it executed a flawless soft splashdown. Hidden to live stream footage, the booster tipped over and experienced an explosion; however, the rocked body stayed afloat long after the landing.

Meanwhile, the ship continued and performed what looked like a nominal in-space relight of a single Raptor engine.

Despite there being visible damage on a forward flap once again, the Starship survived the re-entry heat for a third time and even mastered the high-angle-of-attack descent trajectory before the vertical landing.

Unlike previous flights, today's mission offered high-quality daylight imagery of both vertical landings. Similar to the booster, the ship tipped over after landing and exploded. However, the live stream director played with the cameras and their unequal delay to cut away the moment of the explosion, only showing the aftermath and floating debris.

The flight pushed Starship’s envelope yet again, proving that it can withstand more difficult conditions than what is expected based on computer simulations. Additionally, the in-space relight of a Raptor engine enables the possibility of a full-fledged orbital test flight.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that the company will attempt one more ocean landing of Starship. If successful, SpaceX will attempt to catch the ship with the tower.

Original article: The world’s biggest space rocket of all time, Starship, is about to roar for a sixth time today at 4 p.m. CT when a 30-minute launch window opens.

SpaceX engineers will try to repeat the incredible feat of the previous flight – landing the Super Heavy booster on the Starbase launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas. The first-ever attempt was a huge success; however, given the difficulty of the maneuver, there is no guarantee that everything will go according to plan. Vertical landings on a launch tower are a novelty, not a routine like those of the Falcon 9 workhorse.

There was no Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) intervention after the last flight. That allowed the shortest period between two launches to date (the last flight occurred on October 13).

As always, SpaceX will live-stream the test flight on X. The broadcast will start roughly 30 minutes before launch:

Flight six will follow a similar trajectory as the previous one. The Super Heavy booster with 33 Raptor engines will reignite following the separation to initiate the so-called boostback burn. Before the burn ends, the flight director has to send a manual command for a tower catch attempt. If anything is wrong with the tower systems or the booster itself, the 70-meter-tall beast will default to a safer soft splashdown landing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, the Starship will finally attempt an in-space burn using a single Raptor engine. This ability is crucial for greater flexibility of flight profiles—especially when carrying multiple cargo—and for the spacecraft's post-mission deorbiting.

There are several hardware improvements to Starship:

“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 ship 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.”

The launch window was adjusted to have some daylight in the Indian Ocean, where the Starship was about to perform a soft splashdown. It would be the first time we see Starship landing in the ocean in daylight so that we can expect another incredible live stream or post-flight footage.