SpaceX Launches Starship Into Orbit But Scraps Plan For “Chopsticks” Booster Catch

Update (5:10pm ET): Disappointing those who had hoped to see the “chopsticks” catch in action for the second time in a month, the Super Heavy booster instead splashed down in the ocean after it was deemed unsafe to attempt the remarkable midair catch today.

BREAKING: Space X Super Heavy booster makes offshore splashdown after it was deemed unsafe to attempt the “chopstick” catch. pic.twitter.com/h3kTy07mEp

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 19, 2024

To all those who bought the “No” contract on Polymarket for the chopsticks catch, congratulations on your 4x return.

Otherwise, everything was successful, and SpaceX’s gargantuan Starship rocket blasted off from South Texas in a key test attended by President-elect Donald Trump.

SpaceX’s launch system, comprised of its Super Heavy booster and Starship upper spacecraft, cleared the tower shortly after 4 p.m. local time on Tuesday, the start of a roughly hour-long planned mission to space and partially around the world.

Trump arrived at a launch viewing location with SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk at around 3 p.m. local time. Trump, wearing a blue suit and red MAGA hat, stood flanked by allies, including US Senator from Texas Ted Cruz and Donald Trump Jr., as the group peppered Musk with questions on how the launch works.

Trump’s appearance marks his first at a Starship launch. It follows several appearances with Musk, who has spent a significant amount of time at Mar-a-Lago, joining in on transition meetings and phone calls with foreign leaders. The billionaire, who campaigned on behalf of Trump in crucial swing state Pennsylvania, will lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency, an entity that will recommend federal spending cuts, alongside former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Starship will attempt a fiery return plunge through the atmosphere, testing out an updated heat shield to protect it during the fall. It will then try to return to an upright position before splashing down into the Indian Ocean. While most of Starship appeared to survive this process in October, parts of the vehicle appeared to burn off. However, the company was still able to splash down Starship relatively intact and upright in the ocean.

As Bloomberg notes, the company launched in the Texas afternoon, which means Starship will be landing in the ocean during the daytime. That should provide more sunlight to show how the vehicle survives its descent.

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Earlier

The sixth flight test of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket is targeted to launch during a 30-minute window that opens at 5 PM EST (2100 GMT; 4 PM local Texas time). 

The next Starship test flight aims to push the envelope of Starship and booster capabilities and prepare the entire launch system for reuse. 

“Objectives include the booster once again returning to the launch site for catch, reigniting a ship Raptor engine while in space, and testing a suite of heatshield experiments and maneuvering changes for ship reentry and descent over the Indian Ocean,” SpaceX’s website wrote. 

Elon Musk outlined Starship Flight 6’s objectives on X:

The objectives for Starship Flight 6 are:

1. Restart of Raptor engines in vacuum.
2. Daylight landing of the ship.
3. Higher peak heating (steeper) reentry.
4. Faster/harder booster catch.

There are thousands of small design changes also being tested.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2024

Musk pointed out, “Current Starship is more than twice as powerful as the Saturn V Moon rocket. Starship V3, which hopefully flies in about a year, will be 3X more powerful.”

Current Starship is more than twice as powerful as the Saturn V Moon rocket.

Starship V3, which hopefully flies in about a year, will be 3X more powerful. https://t.co/K0p8HuXH3b

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2024

Even before the two-stage megarocket — featuring the Starship spacecraft stacked atop the Super Heavy booster — launches late afternoon, prediction market platform Polymarket has allowed users to wager on whether the Mechazilla arms (or chopsticks) at the Starbase launchpad near Brownsville, Texas, will successfully catch the Starship as it returns to Earth.

Last month’s Starship Flight 5 marked a historic success.

Starship rocket booster caught by tower pic.twitter.com/aOQmSkt6YE

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 13, 2024

The Polymarket bet is titled “Will the chopsticks catch SpaceX’s Super Heavy?” With about seven hours left before launch, users overwhelmingly bet confidently (about 80%) that chopsticks will successfully catch Starship. About $286k have traded on the contract so far. 

Polymarket has made betting on binary events in the news cycle possible. 

Watch the sixth Starship flight test:

Meanwhile, Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, told investors last Friday that the company plans hundreds of Starship rocket launches during President Trump’s second term.

There is a report from Politico that President-elect Trump plans to watch the Starship launch with Musk in Texas.