Starship's upper stage survived reentry and splashed down in the Indian Ocean following the rocket's sixth test flight.
Starship’s most recent test flight may have failed to demonstrate another booster catch, but it did include the rocket’s upper stage performing a graceful dip into the Indian Ocean. SpaceX recently fished the remains of its Starship rocket’s upper stage out of the water and retrieved bits of hardware to help inform its upcoming test flights.
Interstellar Gateway, a content creator specializing in SpaceX news and updates, analyzed vessel movement data from all ports in Western Australia to identify the SpaceX vessel tasked with towing the rocket’s upper stage. Earlier in October, Starship completed its groundbreaking fifth test flight. For the first time, the rocket’s Super Heavy 232-foot-tall booster gently came down towards the tower, which caught the rocket with its extended mechanical arms like a giant pair of chopsticks.Starship’s latest suborbital launch was intended to include the Super Heavy booster being caught by the massive Mechazilla tower after reentry. However, about four minutes after liftoff, SpaceX declared the booster catch a no-go.
“There is only so much data SpaceX can get from Starship via StarLink transmissions as it has always sank shortly after splashdown,” Interstellar Gateway explained. “Similar to the valuable data being used from the first caught and intact booster, there are tons of structural and out of view faults that can be found from an intact starship returning to land.”
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