Well folks, it’s time for Starship IFT-4!
| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2024-06-06 12:50 |
|---|---|
| Scheduled for (local) | 2024-06-06 07:50 (CDT) |
| Launch Window (UTC) | 2024-06-06 12:00 to 2024-03-14 14:00 (120 minutes) |
| Launch site | OLM-A, SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA. |
| Booster | B11 |
| Ship | S29 |
| Booster landing | Soft water landing in the Gulf of Mexico |
| Ship landing | Indian Ocean |
Webcasts
| Stream | Link |
|---|---|
| Space Affairs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FkQAU5sLck |
| Everyday Astronaut | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VESowgMbjA |
| Spaceflight Now | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFkqZF-Ss7o |
| NASASpaceflight | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTkhv4fvOgA |
| LabPadre | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c49s4fiyM3A |
| The Launch Pad | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiMpEWtojmY |
| SpaceX | https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1798689697184764071 |
| The Space Devs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix-la4IqYlA |
Stats
Sourced from NextSpaceflight and r/SpaceX:
☑️ 2nd Starship Full Stack launch this year
☑️ 4th Starship Full Stack launch overall
☑️ 60th SpaceX launch this year
☑️ 371st SpaceX launch overall (including Starship hops)
☑️ 2nd launch from OLM-A this year
☑️ 83 days, 22:35:00 turnaround for this pad
Mission Details 🚀
- SpaceX website (current): Starship’s Fourth Flight Test
- SpaceX website (archived 2024-06-05): Starship’s Fourth Flight Test
Landing burn startup!
Edit: And shutdown!
Couldn’t really see how the landing burn went, but the telemetry indicated that velocity slowed to just a few km/h at zero altitude.
I can’t believe they (maybe) completed the landing burn with a shredded flap.
Between that and the booster engine issues, this seems like one of the best possible learning scenarios.
That flap was the real MVP of this mission. The little (big) flap that could.
I am curious how much of that flap was still there.
If you watch carefully during landing burn, you can see it actuate a little but then sheer sideways. It was still attached but uhh, slightly less reusable than expected lol. It looked pretty wedged in place as the final shots show the ship fully stop moving. Just incredible! I really hope we see any kind of tracking shots externally in the near future.