SpaceX on Thursday used a giant mechanical arm for the second time to return a Starship rocket to its pad minutes after liftoff.
At the same time, an empty spacecraft launched from Texas and, like previous test flights, flew over the Gulf of Mexico, almost circling the globe.
SpaceX spokesman Dan Fott said mission managers lost contact with the spacecraft and were troubleshooting. This time, Elon Musk's SpaceX packed 10 dummy satellites to practice the release.
It was Musk's spectacular booster catch on his first try that astounded space fans in October and again on Thursday. During the descent, the booster hovered over the launch pad and was then grabbed by a pair of mechanical arms called chopsticks.
The company insisted that everything had to be perfect for the booster to return to the launch site. The booster was the first to use a recycled engine from the one successfully captured in October.
The 400-foot-long (123-meter) rocket roared off Boca Chica Beach near the Mexican border in the late afternoon. Since it was late, we were able to get some sunlight on the other side of the world.
Skimming space, the shiny, retro-looking spacecraft (Musk had intended it as a Moon or Mars ship) sailed across the Indian Ocean for a controlled but destructive end to the hour-long demonstration. targeted.
SpaceX strengthened its catch tower after a November launch damaged a sensor on its robotic arm, forcing the team to abandon its capture attempt. Its booster was instead directed toward the bay.
The company also upgraded its spacecraft for the latest demonstration. The fake satellite was about the same size as SpaceX's Starlink Internet satellite, and was scheduled to end its mission by crashing into the Indian Ocean like a spacecraft.
Musk plans to launch the actual Starlink on Starship before moving on to other satellites and eventually crews.
This was the seventh test flight of the world's largest and most powerful rocket. NASA has reserved a pair of Starships to land astronauts on the moon later this decade. Musk's goal is Mars.
“Every Starship launch brings us one step closer to Mars,” Musk said via X before the launch.
Hours earlier, in Florida, another billionaire's rocket company, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, launched its newest super-rocket, the New Glenn. The rocket successfully reached orbit on its first flight, placing an experimental satellite thousands of miles above Earth. However, the first stage booster was destroyed and it missed its destination landing on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean.
