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Super Heavy-Starship launches on sixth test flight, skips tower catch
(spaceflightnow.com)
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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.