Yes, a Toy Banana Became Starship’s First Physical Payload via Flight Test 6 on Tuesday (Nov. 19)
Launched aboard the sixth flight test of SpaceX’s megarocket, Starship, on Tuesday (Nov. 19), the toy fruit became the first zero-gravity indicator to fly on Starship and will help pave the way for future Starlink satellites.
(Outer Space) SpaceX’s Starship’s Sixth Flight Test, launched on Tuesday, November 19th, from Boca Chica, Texas, had what Starlink’s X account, @starlink, described as “a special payload onboard” – a stuffed banana.
Photo of a banana juxtaposed with a Starlink mini courtesy of a Nov. 19th post by Starlink’s X account, @starlink.
“This universally-accepted measurement of scale is approximately the size of one Starlink mini,” the post explained.
The fake-but-full-size fruit made history as the first zero-gravity indicator to fly on a SpaceX Starship, per Space.com.
Photo of SpaceX’s Starship’s Sixth Flight Test on Tues, Nov. 19th courtesy of SpaceX on X, @spacex.
"Bananas have been used for quick visual comparisons for quite some time and our teammates thought it was time to bring the venerated yellow fruit to Starship," said Kate Tice, a quality engineering manager at SpaceX and co-host of the company’s live launch webcast, per collectSpace. "Today, we’re flying Starship’s first-ever physical payload, which is, as you might have guessed, a banana."
A camera mounted in the Starship’s payload bay revealed the toy banana held on by cables tied to its top and bottom; more than just a visual signal that Starship had reached space on its suborbital trajectory, the banana was also a stand-in for gaining the government’s approval to begin launching more purposeful payloads on future Starship flights, according to collectSpace.
Photo of a toy banana float at the end of its tethers inside the payload bay of a SpaceX Starship during a flight test, Nov. 19, 2024, courtesy of SpaceX’s X account, @spacex, via Space.com.
"You can see our stuffed banana payload, which is doubling as today’s zero gravity or zero-g indicator. And while this payload will remain inside the vehicle at all times and will not be deployed today, it did give us a chance to do a test run of payload approval processes with the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration], and that’s something that we’re hoping to do next year if we start flying our first Starlink satellites on Starship," said Tice. "God speed, banana."
Per a post from SpaceX on X, “data and flight learnings” were Starship’s Sixth Flight Test’s primary payload.
For those interested, SpaceX Starship Flight 6 Bananas are being sold on SpaceX’s website, in addition to SpaceX Banana for Scale wall decals and Starship Flight 6 mission patches.
Post-flight photos of the liftoff of Starship’s sixth flight test can be found here:
