Lost Communications Link Triggered SpaceX Super Heavy Landing Abort

SpaceX passed on attempting to bring the Super Heavy booster that launched a Starship spacecraft Nov. 19 back to its launch tower due to a communications glitch.

The company had hoped to repeat its unprecedented Oct. 19 booster catch during its Nov. 19 flight test from Boca Chica Beach, Texas.

“Lost comms to the launch tower computer,” SpaceX founder, CEO and CTO Elon Musk noted Nov. 20 on his social media site X. “Catch would probably still have worked, but we weren’t sure, so erred on the side of caution.”

SpaceX’s sixth Starship-Super Heavy vehicle lifted off at 5 p.m. EST Nov. 19. The other major goal of Flight 6 was to relight a Starship engine during flight for the first time, which was accomplished.

Musk noted the biggest technical challenge is developing a fully and immediately reusable heat shield. “Metallic shielding, supplemented by ullage gas or liquid film-cooling, is back on the table as a possibility,” he wrote in response to a question on X.

“Being able to land the ship, refill propellant and launch right away with no refurbishment or laborious inspection, that is the acid test,” he said.

Despite some damage to its flaps, Starship ended Flight 6 with a powered soft landing in the Indian Ocean. “We will do one more ocean landing of the ship. If that goes well, then SpaceX will attempt to catch the ship with the tower,” Musk said.

Flight 6 marked the final flight of the first-generation Starship. Upgrades for Starship V.2, which is planned to debut on Flight 7, are expected to include higher-performance Raptor engines, larger propellant tanks, a lighter dry mass and improved overall reliability. The ships will be taller, with smaller forward flaps used for steering during descent that are shifted leeward to improve reliability, ease of manufacturing and payload to orbit.