Starship Completes Flight 6, Aborts Tower Catch

SpaceX’s Starship-Super Heavy launch vehicle completed a sixth flight test on Tuesday, November 19th, capping off an eventful year for this unique development program. The latest flight not only heralds a new phase for the Starship campaign, but coincides with broader changes in the world around it, which may prove inextricably intertwined with the company’s ambitions.

The vehicle lifted off at 4:00 PM Central Time from SpaceX’s Starbase launch facility near Brownsville, Texas, ascending through clear afternoon skies. Unlike October’s flight, the Super Heavy booster aborted its attempt to return to the launch site and be “caught” by crane arms attached to the tower. Instead, the booster diverted to a soft landing in the ocean a few miles off the Texas coast. In a post-flight statement, SpaceX elaborated that health checks on the launch tower triggered the abort; Space Scout photographers on the scene saw visible damage to the tower after launch, including a bent antenna. Despite this minor setback, the vehicle completed a successful ascent onto its planned trajectory.

The Starship upper stage, known as Ship 31, also demonstrated a key milestone which had been postponed earlier in the program: a brief relight of one Raptor engine in space. Previous flights had only used Starship’s engines during launches and landings. This burn used fuel from Starship’s small header tanks, ordinarily reserved for landing on Earth, rather than the larger main propellant tanks, which will be needed for longer burns such as trans-lunar injection and lunar landings. Still, this successful relight will help enable Starship to maneuver in space, return from a stable orbit, or reach the Moon and Mars—all critical to SpaceX’s vision and obligations for the future of this system.

Ship 31 also carried several experimental changes to Starship’s heat shield, and attempted a more aggressive reentry profile than previous flights in order to stress test the vehicle. Although Ship 31 sustained visible damage, it survived reentry structurally intact, and ultimately performed a daylight landing in the Indian Ocean 65 minutes into the flight—Starship’s third successful splashdown during the integrated flight test campaign.

As the year draws to a close, it has proven to be an eventful one for the Starship program. While 2023 saw two flight tests end in fiery explosions, the four flights in 2024 each marked significant accomplishments for the system. Though SpaceX has yet to repeat the successful catch of IFT-5, consistent recovery for the Super Heavy booster appears to be within reach. Starship, meanwhile, seems poised to become the largest vehicle ever recovered from orbit, with its first recovery attempt planned as soon as IFT-8, and it continues to build the capabilities it will need to function as a true spacecraft.

In 2025, SpaceX is expected to debut upgraded versions of both stages, a second launch tower, and continued in-space operations of Starship, including full orbital flights. The next year may also see the long-awaited ship-to-ship cryogenic fuel transfer test, which is crucial to the success of the Starship Human Landing System for NASA’s Artemis Program.

To say the Starship program finds itself in favorable times would diminish the role SpaceX’s CEO has had in creating this environment. Elon Musk has closely aligned himself and his companies’ interests with United States President-elect Donald Trump, and he has asserted significant influence over the nation’s affairs. Musk, recently granted a formal extra-governmental advising role, has been a vocal critic of federal regulations, particularly when they collide with his companies’ ambitions. Thus, a program which has recently been mired in legal controversy may soon face only open horizons as it seeks to accelerate operations in the coming year.

Furthermore, groups like the National Space Council have yet to begin their transition into the Trump administration, leaving many open questions about domestic space policy. Should NASA’s overall direction come under scrutiny during the Trump administration, SpaceX could stand to benefit from programmatic changes. Starship already plays a keystone role in the Artemis program, and as NASA outlines tentative plans to send humans to Mars, Starship advertises an aggressive and straightforward path to the Red Planet.

Still, for now, these ideas are merely hypothetical, and the future of human space exploration remains clouded with uncertainty. In the meantime, the Starship program has much to celebrate at year’s end, and much to look forward to in 2025.

Edited by Scarlet Dominik and Nik Alexander