Musk's space exploration technology company SpaceX successfully completed the fifth "Starship" test launch mission in mid-October. The most eye-catching feature of this test launch was the successful use of the metal arm "chopsticks" on the launch tower to clamp the lower half of the super-heavy booster rocket.

And yesterday (19th), SpaceX conducted its sixth test launch of Starship. The rocket took off from SpaceX's private "Starbase" facility near Brownsville, Texas, without anyone on board. In the end, Starship successfully completed a low-Earth orbit flight and landed in a controlled manner in the Indian Ocean.

Starship successfully lands in the Indian Ocean

New goals achieved during this test included re-igniting the Raptor engine in space, which is critical for future orbital reentry and return to Earth. Starship also tested the performance of the thermal protection system, removing thermal tiles in some areas to test whether other capture mechanisms could be used for thermal protection in these locations. In addition, this night test launch means that this is the first time that Starship has performed a daytime recovery mission in the Indian Ocean.

After seeing Starship land in the Indian Ocean as planned, Musk responded excitedly:

Starship successfully completed sea landing!

Next we will conduct another sea landing test. If the test goes well, SpaceX plans to use the launch tower to directly recover the starship.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson also congratulated the launch, saying the Starship's engine re-ignition marked "significant progress toward orbital flight."

Failed to recover the rocket booster

However, in this test, SpaceX originally planned to use the robotic arm (chopsticks) on the launch tower to recover the rocket booster, but about four minutes after launch, because all the conditions required for recovery were not met, the flight commander decided to cancel the recovery plan and guide the booster to the Gulf of Mexico for splashdown.

SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot said that all criteria for recovering the booster were not met, but he did not specify the problem. As a result, the booster was not captured and recovered by the robotic arm as expected.

Trump personally watched the launch

It is worth mentioning that US President-elect Donald Trump personally visited southern Texas to watch the test launch, showing his close relationship with Musk. Trump watched SpaceX's first manned launch in Florida during his first presidency in 2020.

Trump's growing partnership with Musk, who has invested heavily in Trump's campaign and was named co-chair of a new "Department of Government Effectiveness" aimed at cutting federal spending, could have far-reaching implications for U.S. space policy and technology development.