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.

SpaceX launched its Starship megarocket for the sixth time ever today (Nov. 19) but did not try to catch the vehicle's Super Heavy first stage back at the pad.

SpaceX's Starship 6 test flight stole the show with a banana payload, used as a zero-gravity indicator and for FAA testing, while pushing the limits of spacecraft reusability.