SpaceX held its sixth flight test of its enormous Starship rocket on Tuesday afternoon, and while it did not recreate the history-making booster catch, it welcomed President-elect Donald Trump
Trump, who will be sworn into office for a second term, said on X that he was going to Texas to see “the launch of the largest object ever to be elevated, not only to Space, but simply by lifting off the ground.”
His visit is the latest indicator of his growing closeness to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who was nominated to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency office with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
The agency appears to be consultative, but Musk’s public statements suggest it might lead to big federal government program changes.
Trump’s visit also boosted SpaceX’s Starship program, which it says has been hampered by the government inefficiencies Musk wants to cut with DOGE, such as FAA launch license approval delays.
Trump said at an October 24 rally, “Get going, get that spaceship going, Elon,” encouraging SpaceX to reach Mars by the end of the term. The next Mars-Earth transfer window is in 2026.
The sixth Starship development flight test on Tuesday was uneventful.
As in the fifth test in October, the company planned to catch the 233-foot-tall Super Heavy booster with the massive launch tower’s arms, but the booster did not meet the mission director’s “commit criteria” for the attempt. The booster splashed down in a Gulf of Mexico authorized region.
This test saw SpaceX restart one of its engines in space for the first time in Starship’s top stage. It will enable orbital reuse of the top stage and booster.
Starship development has advanced rapidly after SpaceX launched the first fully integrated rocket in April 2023.
The company’s intentions to transport crew and freight to interplanetary destinations and NASA’s plans to return humans to the moon for the first time since Apollo depend on the roughly 400-foot-tall vehicle.
