Related: What's next for SpaceX's Starship after its successful 6th test flight? The difference in lighting could be seen from orbit, too. A blue haze of atmosphere filters Earth and sea in Pettit's photo, as the sunlight illuminates Starship's exhaust plume to a strikingly contrasted white tail, which casts its miles-long shadow on the water below. Starship launch from @ISS. We happened to be overhead! pic.twitter.com/SLRlLoRrivNovember 21, 2024 NASA astronaut Don Pettit's photo of the sixth Starship test flight, seen in vertical configuration. (Image credit: NASA / Don Pettit) Other than the change in launch windows, Starship's sixth flight was largely meant to mirror its fifth, which successfully returned the rocket's Super Heavy booster-stage to the launch site for the first-ever catch of the vehicle using the launch tower's "chopstick arms" on Oct. 13. Flight 6, however, did not attempt a second booster catch. During the booster's initial return phase, certain onboard criteria for a safe tower catch were not met, dictating the vehicle's safe abort. Instead of being snatched from the air by the tower's chopstick arms, the booster was diverted to an off-shore splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, safely disposing of the rocket stage away from populated areas about seven minutes after liftoff. Starship — or just Ship, as SpaceX has begun referring to the vehicle's upper stage — continued onward to space, and managed to succeed in all of its flight objectives. Building on the success of Flight 5, Ship re-lit one of its six Raptor engines in space for the first time. This capability for Starship to make safe reentries following orbital missions, and to reach targets in deep space, like the moon and Mars. Like the first-stage Super Heavy booster, Ship is also designed for a return landing at the vehicle's launch tower — with the ability to be caught by the same chopstick arms used to grab Super Heavy last month. For its first half-dozen flights, Ship has targeted ocean splashdowns, but SpaceX aims to test Ship's return to the launch pad on an upcoming flight. The time between Starship flights 5 and 6 was the shortest to date, with just over a month separating the two. Though a launch date has not yet been announced, SpaceX has already begun some pre-launch checkouts on the seventh Starship vehicle. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com. See all comments (0)