A camera mounted in Starship's payload bay revealed the toy banana held 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.

In an amusing move, Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its mega rocket, Starship, on its sixth test flight with a banana as its cargo. The banana, tied inside the spacecraft's cargo, was a strategic move made by the space company for the November 20 launch,