[3] In June, Musk stated the heatshield tiles on the flight 5 vehicle will be twice as strong along with a new ablative protection layer underneath.

[20][21] SpaceX claimed that government paperwork prevented it from flying Starship quickly to meet commitments to the Artemis program.

However, because SpaceX chose to modify both in an attempt to "catch" the Super Heavy booster through a return-to-launch-site maneuver, it triggered a more in-depth review because of the changed impact location of the hot stage ring and the sonic boom that would be generated.

The booster slowed to a near hover and did a horizontal slide maneuver to line itself up with two massive "chopstick" arms on the launch tower, dubbed "Mechazilla."

[26][2] The upper stage Starship spacecraft reached an apogee of 212 km (132 mi) before a controlled water landing in the Indian Ocean.

Video showed minor damage to the control flaps during re-entry, but despite this, it splashed down with high accuracy in the water near a pre-positioned buoy that captured footage of the splashdown.

[27] Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield hailed the flight, declaring that "there was an enormous step forward in human capability today.

"[28] Fellow aerospace manufacturers also congratulated SpaceX including Blue Origin,[29] Stoke Space,[30] and Rocket Factory Augsburg, with the latter commending the company's "incredible feat of engineering" and commenting that at its current pace, the European space industry has "no chance" of catching up to SpaceX.