“After firing up its 33 powerful Raptor engines and propelling the Starship spacecraft toward space, the Super Heavy booster separated from the spacecraft, reversed course and steered itself back toward the launch site. SpaceX planned to attempt a precision landing of the booster into the arms, or ‘chopsticks,’ of the launch and landing structure — nicknamed ‘Mechazilla’ by Musk — at the company’s Starbase facility. The company first pulled off the unprecedented maneuver during the fifth Starship test flight last month.

 However, this time ‘automated health checks of critical hardware on the launch and catch tower triggered an abort of the catch attempt,’ SpaceX said in a statement Tuesday. ‘The booster then executed a pre-planned divert maneuver, performing a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.’

The Starship spacecraft, meanwhile, fired up its own six engines before entering a coasting phase as it soared through space. The capsule briefly reignited an engine about half an hour later before bracing for reentry — the process by which it veers back into the thickest part of Earth’s atmosphere — and executing a daring landing.

It’s the first time Starship, a vehicle intended to eventually carry humans to the moon and Mars, has successfully ignited one of its Raptor engines while in space, according to SpaceX.”

From CNN.