Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, launched the sixth test of his SpaceX rocket with United States President-elect Donald Trump joining him to watch.


Trump and Musk travelled to Brownsville, Texas, on Tuesday to attend the launch of the giant Starship rocket at SpaceX’s test site in nearby Boca Chica.


The rocket lifted off shortly after 5pm (23:00 GMT), but SpaceX chose to abort a planned attempt to catch the first-state booster of the rocket using the ‘chopstick’ technique, instead allowing it to fall into the ocean.


The last Starship test flight in October made headlines after the Super Heavy booster made a stunning return to the launch site where it was captured midair by a pair of giant mechanical “chopstick” arms attached to SpaceX’s launch tower.