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SpaceX decided not to catch Starship’s booster with the launch tower at Starbase on the rocket’s sixth test flight earlier this week as it lost communication with the launch tower computer, company CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday.
What Happened: “Lost comms to the launch tower computer. Catch would probably still have worked, but we weren’t sure, so erred on the side of caution,” Musk wrote on social media platform X.
The sixth test flight of the Starship launched from Starbase on Nov. 19.
The booster lifted off but instead of returning it to the launch site as planned to be captured by the launch tower, the company chose to splash it down in the Gulf of Mexico where it subsequently exploded.
“Automated health checks of critical hardware on the launch and catch tower triggered an abort of the catch attempt,” SpaceX said about the decision.
The Starship ...
