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Super Heavy-Starship launches on sixth test flight, skips tower catch
(spaceflightnow.com)
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Yeah my guess from the very limited information I have is the abort-to-spashdown decision was probably automated, so I'm extremely interested to hear why they aborted the catch. It feels a bit at odds with the ambition to catch a starship soon, but if their code is so conservative about aborted catches, it seems realistic to at least try
I believe the booster can’t return to the pad unless it’s explicitly told to from the ground (so if it loses contact, it will crash safely).
During the stream, they said that the very specific criteria for a recapture attempt were not met. They didn’t say what that criteria was.
They have since clarified that it was an issue with the tower, not the booster. Although "Tower is go for catch", was called out during the webcast, it seems like a later check identified an issue which triggered the abort:
I hope we get to find out what the "automated health checks" were.