Starship's first ever payload was a stuffed banana

Flight six of Starship was seen as a test of whether SpaceX’s first booster catch was pure precision or relied on a stroke of luck.

Flight six of Starship was seen as a test of whether SpaceX's first booster catch was pure precision or relied on a stroke of luck after Musk - perhaps inadvertently - disclosed how close the last flight came to disaster.

In a clip posted to X showcasing his gaming chops in "Diablo IV," sharp-eared fans caught an employee briefing him that the Super Heavy booster was "one second away" from a system failure that could have spelled catastrophe.

The flight also carried Starship's first ever payload - a stuffed banana - and served as a swan song for the current generation of Starship prototypes.

Starship's upper stage meanwhile made a partial orbit of Earth, re-entered the atmosphere and splashed down in the Indian Ocean around an hour and five minutes after launch.

SpaceX employees erupted in cheers during a live feed watched by nearly nine million viewers, as the upper stage executed a near-vertical daylight splashdown off Australia's northwest coast, sending up a towering plume of water vapour before tipping over.

Key milestones included reigniting Starship's Raptor engines for the first time in space and trialing new heat shield materials.

With twice the thrust of the Saturn V rockets that powered Apollo missions, Starship is the most powerful rocket ever built.