SpaceX Fails To Repeat Starship Booster Catch, As Trump Looks On

Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its sixth Starship test flight to space on Tuesday from Texas, eyeing an array of improvements on the rocket as US President-elect Donald Trump watched in person.

The roughly 400-foot-tall (122-meter-tall) rocket system, designed to land astronauts on the moon and ferry crews to Mars, lifted off at 4 p.m. CT (2200 GMT) from SpaceX's sprawling rocket development site in Boca Chica, Texas.

The first stage, called Super Heavy, unexpectedly made a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico instead of attempting to return to its launchpad, indicating something went wrong.