SpaceX launches Sixth Starship flight with new improvements but no booster catch

On Tuesday, November 19, SpaceX launched the sixth Starship flight and validated all of the milestones from the last test flight including the liftoff, booster catch, and ship reentry.

The vehicle was lifted off from Boca Chica Launch Site, Starbase, Texas firing full engines as the tower arms were set apart prior to the countdown.

This was the fastest Starship launch among the six flights to date. This is due to the flight objectives, which remained identical to the last flight.

The past flight license also drew major criticism from the Federal Aviation Administration for delaying the 5th flight license. This time, SpaceX had a pre-approval for flight 6.

With its 33 Raptor engines, the first stage achieved Max Q and performed a hot-staging. This way, the first stage maneuvered back to Earth and the second stage ignited its six Raptor engine to enter sub-orbit.

Flight 5’s success has brought this new mission together and helped the company make new changes in the launch pad as well as the ground support.

People gathered around the coastal area to watch this massive rocket’s vertical landing. Unfortunately, SpaceX did not attempt the landing on the launch tower arms this time instead it was deflected to the sea for a splash down.

Meanwhile, Starship kept on coasting through Earth and shared beautiful visuals of the Earth from the orbit using Starlink.

Then, the ship entered Earth’s atmosphere with increasing atmospheric pressure to continue to warm up its heat shield tiles. These tiles are essential to flight’s resistance against heat.

After descending for about 20 minutes, the rocket marked a stop with a flip maneuver and a final burn to splash down in the Indian Ocean.

That marks the end of the sixth SpaceX Starship flight test and the data collected with this mission will help to improve the seventh test soon.