SpaceX conducted its fourth flight test of its Starship vehicle on Thursday. The vehicle lifted off at 8:50 a.m. ET and successfully separated from the Super Heavy booster rocket. As the Starship continued toward the Indian Ocean, a SpaceX livestream showed the booster rocket burning and splashing down as planned for a landing in the Gulf of Mexico.
As of 9:42 a.m. ET, the live broadcast was live again, showing the starship during its reentry into the atmosphere.
SpaceX said the main goal of the fourth flight test was to demonstrate the ability to return and reuse Starship and its Super Heavy booster – requiring the spacecraft to survive the re-entry phase through Earth’s atmosphere, which it did during the previous flight test Disintegrate in Earth’s atmosphere. The launch builds on lessons SpaceX learned from its March Starship flight, which successfully launched into space and completed several objectives before losing contact with the vehicle.
SpaceX says it has made multiple hardware and software updates to address previous issues. The third flight test was the most successful so far, with the first two Starship launches ending in violent explosions shortly after liftoff.
If all goes according to plan this time, we should see Starship’s controlled entry and splashdown in the Indian Ocean, with the Super Heavy booster expected to perform a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico
Update June 6: Added new release and live streaming details.
