USA TODAY SpaceX called off a catch attempt of the returning rocket stage of the booster, which the company successfully pulled off for the first time in October. But the vehicle's upper stage continued its streak of successfully splashing down in the Indian Ocean after a launch from Starbase in Texas. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson hailed the launch as a "success" in a post on Musk's social media platform X, calling it "major progress toward orbital flight." SpaceX's massive Starship vehicle that will one day propel humans deep into the cosmos launched Tuesday evening for its latest flight test as President-elect Donald Trump looked on. Trump has frequently raved at his rallies about the 400-foot behemoth, composed of both a spacecraft and a rocket, as well as SpaceX's successful catch of the returning booster stage during its October demonstration. But the complex maneuver was one Elon Musk's company was unable to repeat in its sixth and most recent uncrewed test, which Trump witnessed in person from Texas. That hardly made the test a failure. The vehicle's upper stage continued its streak of successfully splashing down in the Indian Ocean after all SpaceX's 33 Raptor engines powered Starship off the pad from Starbase near the city of Brownsville. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson hailed the launch as a success in a post on Musk's social media platform X, calling it "major progress toward orbital flight." The Starship is integral in NASA's plans of sending people back to the moon and Musk's grand vision of eventually colonizing Mars. As part of NASA's ambitious Artemis campaign, the space agency's first lunar program since the Apollo era of the 1970s, NASA is paying SpaceX $4 billion to develop a spacecraft capable of safely transporting astronauts from orbit to the moon's surface. Musk has previously stated his vision of sending the first Starships to Mars in late 2026, the next time that Earth and Mars line up, followed by crewed flights in 2028. As SpaceX prepares for more test flights in 2025, here's what to know about what happened in all the previous launches that began more than a year ago. Nov. 19, 2024: Trump in attendance; booster catch called off The most recent Starship flight test took place in front of Trump, who has made a series of public appearances with Musk as the incoming president signals that the tech billionaire will have a large role in his administration. The Starship began its projected trajectory over the Gulf of Mexico at 5 p.m. ET, following a similar suborbital path as previous flights. The vehicle's 232-foot "Super Heavy" rocket booster splashed down off the coast of Texas seven minutes after launch. The spacecraft also includes the 165-foot Starship spacecraft itself, which flew for more than an hour before splashing down at 6:05 p.m. ET in the Indian Ocean. As for the booster, SpaceX officials had hoped to replicate what they did for the first time in the previous test, steering it back autonomously to the landing pad before catching it with two giant mechanical arms. But during the flight, officials opted to skip the complex maneuver for safety reasons. In an update on its website, SpaceX attributed the decision to data from "automated health checks" of hardware on both the launch and catch tower. SpaceX has not yet provided a more specific reason for why the booster catch was called off. The company also reignited its Raptor engines in space to attempt an orbital burn – a crucial maneuver to one day bring a vehicle back to the ground. Tuesday's launch also included plans to fly the ship at a "higher angle of attack" to test what it can handle on future landings. Oct. 13, 2024: SpaceX catches rocket booster in mechanical arm For its fifth test flight, the empty Starship blasted off Oct. 13 from the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border. As in previous tests, the vehicle flew on a trajectory over the Gulf of Mexico into orbit. In a first, the first-stage Super Heavy booster flew back to the launch pad. SpaceX had built a launch tower with massive mechanized metal arms, nicknamed "chopsticks," that then managed to catch the descending booster in a daring maneuver. Having the capability of catching the Starship booster is crucial for SpaceX, giving the company a completely reusable vehicle that is able to fly again. Prior to the booster dropping and landing, it had pushed the Starship upward into the atmosphere, sending it soaring more than 130 miles high.