Starship Flight 6 sees Musk abort ‘chopstick’ catch

SpaceX aborted an attempt to catch its Starship rocket on Tuesday in a blow to Elon Musk’s Mars ambitions.
The sixth Starship flight test saw SpaceX once again attempt to catch the rocket’s Super Heavy booster using “chopstick” arms at the launch tower at the company’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
Measuring 120-metres-tall, Starship is the biggest rocket ever built, capable of carrying up to 100 people. SpaceX hopes to use it to ferry crew and cargo across the solar system, aiming to establish a permanent human colony on Mars by 2050.
Tuesday’s launch was uncrewed, with the failed catch of the booster followed by a successful splashdown of the upper stage Starship rocket in the Indian Ocean. Other objectives for the mission were also completed, including a first in-space burn using a single Raptor engine.
The 30-minute launch window opened at 4pm local time (10pm GMT), with a live stream broadcast beginning 40 minutes before lift-off.