Trump and Musk were seen hugging each other before heading to the Space X control room in Boca Chica, Texas.
The point of the launch was, among other things, to try to catch the booster rocket that assists during the launch of the unmanned spacecraft – something Space X succeeded with during an earlier launch in October.
Then the booster rocket was steered back to the base on the ground and could be caught with enormous mechanical arms. The idea is that by catching the booster rocket, it will be possible to reuse it.
But Donald Trump did not get to see the success repeated. The maneuver was aborted just four minutes into Tuesday evening's test flight for unspecified reasons, and the booster rocket was instead steered down into the sea.
The spacecraft itself also landed there in the end. After the nearly one-hour-long test flight, it made a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean.
The launch was the sixth of a fully assembled Starship rocket since 2023. The first three exploded. In the future, SpaceX and Nasa hope that the rockets will be able to be used to transport astronauts to the moon, and eventually to Mars.
