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This time, SpaceX is focused on “demonstrating the ability to return and reuse Starship and Super Heavy. The primary objectives will be executing a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico with the Super Heavy booster, and achieving a controlled entry of Starship,” according to a release shared by the company.

If successful, Starship is expected to splash down in the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX made multiple software and hardware upgrades on Starship to incorporate lessons learned from the third flight.

 

“The fourth flight of Starship will aim to bring us closer to the rapidly reusable future on the horizon,” according to SpaceX. “We’re continuing to rapidly develop Starship, putting flight hardware in a flight environment to learn as quickly as possible as we build a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.”

 

 

Wake up, Martin!  Launch within the hour!....Maybe! 🚀🧨 😲

I'm fully awake. 😁

44 minutes to go. Propellant loading has started.

Let's hope we see a successful launch and it makes it down to the ocean for its "virtual chopstick" landing. 

That looked like an almost perfect booster water landing, virtual chopstick landing.

They seem to be awaiting signal from the space craft.  I guess one orbit then the explosive re-entry!

32 minutes ago, charliearon said:

They seem to be awaiting signal from the space craft.  I guess one orbit then the explosive re-entry!

 

Less than one orbit. Being able to see the plasma being generated is amazing. 

Wow, that was one hell of a ride!

Fantastic! Booster landed in the ocean in the same manner as if caught by chopsticks. At the same time, back at the launch tower, looks like they closed the chopsticks in synchrony.

And Starship, despite the plasma partly melting a fin, made it all the way down to the ocean for a perfect landing.

Interestingly, SpaceX removed some tiles, made some thinner and some thicker as a test. Starship is built like a tank. 😁

Edited June 6, 20241 yr by martin-w

 

The footage we get of these launches is simply astonishing.

3 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

The footage we get of these launches is simply astonishing.

 

Yep, thanks to Starlink.

Never been possible before as the electrically conductive plasma that's generated disrupts the signal. Starlink beams it up rather than down, up to a satellite, then back down to the ground station. 

Starlink pays for a big chunk of Starship, too. 

Elon has said that they should get complete Starlink coverage on next flight. In addition, they will try and catch Starship with the tower arms.

 

Edited June 7, 20241 yr by martin-w

The sound signal from the drone camera was disrupted. No idea what was going on there.

It appears that one of the engines didn't ignite, but that didn't seem to affect the flight.

8 minutes ago, n4gix said:

It appears that one of the engines didn't ignite, but that didn't seem to affect the flight.

They need a bigger match! 🔥

Nice new views. Look at those shockwaves.