SpaceX successfully "caught" the first-stage booster of its Starship megarocket Sunday as it returned to the launch pad after a test flight. Video / AFP
SpaceX is gearing up for its next test flight of its Starship megarocket, with US President-elect Donald Trump set to witness the spectacle firsthand, highlighting his growing alliance with Elon Musk.
The 30-minute launch window opens at 11am, New Zealand time.
It marks the company’s second-ever attempt to catch its descending booster stage in the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms, an engineering marvel it first pulled off last month, cementing its dominance in reusable rocketry.
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Europa Clipper spacecraft aboard launching from Florida's Cape Canaveral on October 14. Photo / Chandan Khanna, AFP
“It was a beautiful thing to see,” Trump declared in his election night victory speech, dramatically recounting the feat.
Donald Trump, his son Donald Jr, Elon Musk and Robert F Kennedy Jr with a McDonald’s meal on their way to the UFC fight. Photo / Instagram
Trump’s decision to travel to Musk’s home turf is the latest sign of the burgeoning bond between the billionaire duo, which has raised questions over possible conflicts of interests given SpaceX’s lucrative contracts with Nasa and the Pentagon.
Tuesday’s launch marks the quickest turnaround between test flights for the world’s most powerful rocket, a gleaming, 121m-tall (400ft) stainless steel colossus central to Musk’s ambition of colonising Mars and making humanity a multiplanetary species.
Nasa is also counting on a specialised version of Starship to ferry astronauts to the lunar surface later this decade under its Artemis program.
Daylight splashdown
It will also test whether SpaceX’s first booster catch was pure precision or relied on a stroke of luck after Musk, perhaps inadvertently, disclosed how close the last flight came to disaster.
In a clip posted to X showcasing his gaming chops in “Diablo IV,” sharp-eared fans caught an employee briefing him that the Super Heavy booster was “one second away” from a system failure that could have spelled catastrophe.
Flight six will revisit many of the goals from flight five, with some updates.
If all goes as planned, the returning booster will roar back at supersonic speeds, creating sonic booms as it nears the launch tower.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gestures as he steps on stage during a rally for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York last month. Photo / Angela Weiss, AFP
There, a pair of massive mechanical arms will reach out to catch it and bring it to a halt, around eight to 10 minutes after liftoff.
Starship’s upper stage will make a partial orbit of Earth, re-enter the atmosphere and splash down in the Indian Ocean a little over an hour later, but this time in the daylight, providing clearer visuals for analysis.
Key milestones include reigniting Starship’s Raptor engines for the first time in space and trialing new heat shield materials.
The flight also serves as a swansong for the current generation of Starship prototypes.
With twice the thrust of the Saturn V rockets that powered Apollo missions, Starship is the most powerful rocket ever built. Musk has already teased that its successor, Starship V3, will be “3X more powerful” and could take flight within a year.
The flight comes as Musk is riding high on Trump’s November 5 White House win, having campaigned extensively for the returning Republican leader, as well as donating staggering sums from his own fortune to the cause.
His loyalty has paid off. Musk has been tapped to co-lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” or DOGE, a cheeky nod to the meme-based cryptocurrency Musk loves to promote.
That in turn has led to concerns Musk could engage in “self-dealing” as the CEO is poised to straddle the line between government insider and corporate titan.
Critics worry he could sway regulatory decisions to benefit his six companies, including SpaceX and its marquee Starship programme.
SpaceX hasn’t shied away from pushing back against perceived regulatory hurdles.
Ahead of the fifth flight, the company lambasted the licensing process, blaming delays on “frivolous” issues like an unnecessary environmental review.
