Starship Super Heavy Has Finally Nailed Its Flight Test!

SpaceX

After three attempts since early 2023, SpaceX has finally succeeded in conducting a full integrated flight test of Starship Super Heavy!

At 7:50 AM, CDT (12:50 PM, UTC), the launch vehicle consisting of Ship 29 and Booster 11 (B11) departed from Starbase in Texas on Integrated Flight Test 4 (IFT-4)...with Booster 11 heading towards the sky on 32 of 33 Raptor 2 engines. It was a nominal ascent despite one engine on B11 shutting down upon liftoff, resulting in Ship 29 successfully separating from its Super Heavy booster less than three minutes afer launch.

Unlike IFT-3, which employed the hot stage maneuver for the first time, IFT-4 saw the hot stage ring being jettisoned from Booster 11 after it separated from Ship 29 following main engine cutoff. This was to reduce the amount of weight aboard the booster as it conducted a boostback burn to make its way towards the Gulf of Mexico.

And unlike the three previous Super Heavy boosters, Booster 11 successfully made its way down to the Gulf...with the vehicle softly splashing down in the water after initiating a landing burn that drew the cheers of a huge crowd of employees watching the IFT-4 broadcast at SpaceX Headquarters in Hawthorne, CA.

Around forty minutes after launch, Ship 29 began its own reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Needless to say, footage from Ship 29's descent was both spectacular and dramatic—with stunning video showing one of the vehicle's two forward flaps slowly disintegrating from the searing heat of reentry as the ship sped its way towards a splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

Thanks to continuous video coverage provided by SpaceX's Starlink satellite constellation, rocket geeks around the world watched as Ship 29 made its way towards the ocean to conclude IFT-4. Despite damage to the camera lens caused by debris coming off the partially-intact flap, the glow from Ship 29's landing burn was still visible as the vehicle successfully landed in the water.

With Starship Super Heavy's fourth flight being a bonafide success, there will be no 'mishap investigation' by the Federal Aviation Administration to cause SpaceX to wait months to conduct IFT-5. Elon Musk commented after IFT-4 that the fifth test may involve the next booster—Booster 12—actually heading back to Starbase following launch to be caught by the Orbital Launch Tower's (OLT) so-called mechazilla arms (also nicknamed 'chopsticks')!

We'll have to wait and see what SpaceX has in mind for Starship Super Heavy now that it was able to pull off a successful launch and reentry. If Booster 12 does return to Starbase after sending IFT-5's Ship 30 to orbit—and nails the catch by OLT's chopsticks—then this changes spaceflight forever.

The next launch by the world's most-powerful rocket ever flown will definitely be one for the history books.


SpaceX


SpaceX


SpaceX


SpaceX


SpaceX


SpaceX


SpaceX