IFT-4: SpaceX Starship Nails Re-entry, Splashdown In Fourth Flight Test
IFT-4: SpaceX Starship Nails Re-entry, Splashdown In Fourth Flight Test
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[Update] Moment Starship's Super Heavy Splashed Down In Golf Of Mexico During Fourth Flight Test: IFT-4
[Update] Moment Starship's Super Heavy Splashed Down In Golf Of Mexico During Fourth Flight Test: IFT-4
Footage posted by SpaceX on X, shows Super Heavy landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, about 8 minutes after Starship liftoff during the fourth integrated flight test(IFT-4) of the company's massive space vehicle on June 6.
SpaceX aims to make the 70 meter-tall first stage(or booster) reusable, just like the company's workhorse, Falcon 9 first stage. "Next flight, we try to catch it with giant Mechzilla arms, inspired, at least in part, inspired by Kong v Godzilla," Elon Musk wrote Saturday, on X. "If they can fake do it in movies, we can do it irl! Logic."
Despite its damaged flap during reentry, Starship's 50 meter-tall upper stage (simply called the Ship by the company) also splashed down in the Indian ocean 6 kilometers off the targeted location, according to Musk. "Booster landing was on target, ship landing was several km off due to flap damage, but both were soft landings," he wrote Saturday, on X.
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In a fourth integrated flight test, SpaceX's 122 meters tall 5000 tons space vehicle lifted off at 1250 UTC on June 6, from the company's Starbase site near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas atop a thundering pillar of fire. Super Heavy, the first-stage booster appeared to fire up 32 of its 33 Raptor engines during liftoff, with one engine clearly out in video and telemetry.
Hot-staging occurred about 3 minutes after liftoff during which Super Heavy separated from the 50 m tall upper stage or Starship(simply called the Ship).
About 8 minutes after liftoff, Super Heavy fired up 12 of its 13 engines as it successfully re-entered the Earth for a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, the Ship continued its journey skywards.
After coasting in orbit, and at about 65 minutes after liftoff, the Ship appeared to nail a landing burn during reentry, despite one of its flaps clearly suffering burn-through damage during descent. Live camera views showed the flap's heat shield burn away, covering the the camera with debris, then ultimately cracking the lens.
The camera came back despite several signal drops, proving each time that Starship was alive. At landing, the Ship appeared to flip as planned and execute its landing burn.
"This whole building was going absolutely insane," SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said during live commentary from the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California. "When we saw the booster hit the water, I mean, wow."
The crowd, as you'd expect, also went wild.
"It was so loud here," Kate Tice, SpaceX quality systems engineering senior manager, said during live commentary. "I haven't heard the crowd get that loud, probably, since Flight One."
Tice, Huot and SpaceX's Jessie Anderson celebrated the Starship landing by toasting a marshmallow with a Starship-shaped lighter.
The company appeared to achieve its two main goals during IFT-4, reentry and splashdowns of the Ship and Super Heavy.
"Starship executed another successful hot-stage separation, powering down all but three of Super Heavy’s Raptor engines and successfully igniting the six second stage Raptor engines before separating the vehicles," SpaceX wrote in its mission summary. "Following separation, the Super Heavy booster successfully completed its flip maneuver, boostback burn to send it towards the splashdown zone, and jettison of the hot-stage adapter. Flight 4 ended with Starship igniting its three center Raptor engines and executing the first flip maneuver and landing burn since our suborbital campaign, followed by a soft splashdown of the ship in the Indian Ocean one hour and six minutes after launch."
"Starship made a controlled reentry, successfully making it through the phases of peak heating and max aerodynamic pressure and demonstrating the ability to control the vehicle using its flaps while descending through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds," SpaceX also wrote on X.
SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell wrote on X: "Congratulations and a huge thank you to our extraordinary @SpaceX team! Successful Super Heavy launch and landing, “orbital” ship (that’s one tough cookie!) entry, engine relight and splashdown. I hope you enjoyed the views, the music and see you back soon for our next flight!"
"Despite loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship made it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean!" Founder and CEO Elon Musk wrote on X. "Congratulations SpaceX team on an epic achievement!!"
SpaceX is building a fully reusable Starship, one, that the company hopes, could make human settlement of the moon and Mars economically feasible at long last.
Indeed, the vehicle was designed with Mars in mind: Its next-gen Raptor engines (33 for Super Heavy and six for Ship) burn liquid oxygen and liquid methane, both of which can be sourced on the Red Planet.
NASA selected Starship as the first crewed lander for its Artemis program of moon exploration, which aims to establish a research base in the ice-rich south polar region by the end of the 2020s. The current architecture calls for Starship to land NASA astronauts on the moon for the first time in September 2026, on the Artemis 3 mission.
Thursday's launch shows a massive improvement in Starship performance over the previous 3 flight tests. The stainless-steel spacecraft will need to ace many more test flights before it's ready for full operation and lunar and Mars missions, but it is off to a good start, and has made significant progress on each of its four liftoffs to date.
WATCH Starship fourth integrated flight test
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