A test launch of SpaceX’s megarocket failed to perform as planned on Tuesday, as president-elect Donald Trump looked on, with flight directors abandoning an effort to catch the vehicle’s reusable booster just minutes into the mission in a setback for SpaceX owner Elon Musk.
Trump had travelled to Brownsville, Texas, to witness the sixth test of the unmanned Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. The vehicle is a crucial part of the US’s plan to put humans back on the Moon and Musk’s ambition to colonise Mars.
SpaceX had hoped to repeat the technical breakthrough first achieved last month, catching the “Super Heavy” booster stage of the 397-foot (121-metre) rocket with mechanical arms known as “chopsticks” on the same pad it was launched from. Musk had said earlier in the day that one of the objectives was a “Faster/harder booster catch”.