SpaceX Launches (and lands) Starship Flight 4

SpaceX successfully met all Starship test objectives during Starship Flight 4. Launch, stage separation, Booster soft landing, and Ship reentry all were performed providing huge amounts of data for future Starship flights. On reentry, Starship's heat shield appeared to degrade quicker than expected, leading to a burn through on at least one area of the vehicle, but the Ship still performed the flip and burn maneuver to softly land in the ocean.

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🎥 Video from Starbase Live and SpaceX.

L2 Boca Chica (more clips and photos) from BC's very early days to today.

#ift4 #spacex #starship

[CoffeeMonster]

Before today I thought there was no way they could land the ship, absolutely no way after seeing the flap disintegrate, yet it still managed to get down. Absolutely incredible

[PolarBearo]

That flap: "Tis but a scratch"
Everyone: "but you're missing half the hinge"
That flap: "just a flesh wound"

[scheldon]

Ship 29 is an absolute UNIT of a warrior!

[TheDisgruntledImperial]

This must be how sports fans feel, because I was whooping and hollering like an absolute madman.

[blizzardthewatcher]

That was the most nuts that the NSF Team have gone on stream since SN8 , and I approve . Well done SpaceX and NSF .

[GroupCaptain-LionelMandrake]

Give that flap a medal! Every flight gets more and more exciting. SpaceX really are on the way to Mars

[Lensman]

I saw the Apollo program (Project Apollo) and watched Saturn V stacks heading for the moon, saw lunar golf and rallying, saw the look of delirious excitement on John Young's face when he disembarked from Columbia after STS-1, saw many other amazing aerospace achievements in my 60 years and now this! Astonishing! 😁

[Festizzio]

That shot of the rocket silhouette passing through the gap in the clouds at 1:26 is phenomenal!

[archierush]

That flap…



Everyone is surprised it made it through reentry after the flap had a massive chunk taken out but how was it still able to do the flip? We were all sure it probably was just gonna slam into the ocean but performing AND SUCCEEDING in the flip manoeuvre is just insane!

[aco]

Ship 29's landing is the most cinematic si-fi thing I have ever seen, and it was REAL! lol
Hollywood eat your heart out!!!

That was the most insane thing I have ever seen

[f.w.]

Watching that flap melt in realtime could help to think that’s how the shuttle disintegrated, but watching ship survive and land was epic.

[RedTideRTS]

Absolutely honored to be alive to witness this!

[ChaosDivision]

It was amazing from start to finish. Go starship!

[jeffk]

The “little” flap that could!!! Un-freaking-believable. The whole last couple minutes I was saying to my TV screen, “Damn. It’s over!”
I was PLEASED to be proven wrong!

That thing’s built like a tank! They still have some work to do, but I no longer have any doubts, they WILL get this all figured out perfectly in the next couple flights. I can’t *wait* to see what this will be like when they roll out Starship V2.

[philipgrice]

Awesome! The NSF team are true enthusiasts. One dork clapping and lots of nerds experiencing emotional overloads. You guys are great! Including the Dork. Nobody does it better when it comes to covering SpaceX live activities. CSI Starbase covers the technology and engineering better, but nobody beats your passion. Thank you, NSF.

[Chris-rcky]

Having starhopper off to the side of the pad watching it's effective grandchild launch and successfully land gives me a weird emotional sentiment. Congratulations to SpaceX on the successful launch and landing! The little flap that could held through! Here's to IF-5 hopefully being even more successful!

[paca_bill]

I really wish that they had parked a few unmanned boats out at the anticipated landing zones to get some video shots, but that's more likely in the future after they nail a few of these. Hat's off to SpaceX!

[avilabetty]

That flap held on for dear life. What a warrior! And the ship survived with missing tiles! 🤯

[nikpanaousis]

If the ship was able to maneuver and soft-splash with a damaged fin, I am more than hopeful for the future ahead. Congrats to the entire SpaceX team for pushing boundaries.

[trebien]

Ship 29 should be Renamed Nemo because of it's lucky fin