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We're still flying half a ship!
Absolutely incredible performance. There are obviously some areas for improvement (booster engine out, flap seals), but the booster soft landing and ship controlled reentry were both huge steps forward.
On to IFT-5! Put some payloads on it!
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.
Confirmed payload for IFT-4! /S
Soft landing for super heavy ✅ Starship cruising in space ✅
A couple of engines failed, but wow, so much improvement on each flight.
The Super Heavy hover looked way more stable than I was expecting. Amazing progress.
The gridfins started getting active and I got some bad flashbacks, but they reigned it in for a really impressive soft landing
Yeah, I was getting nervous when the booster was plummeting at mach 2 only 10 km up and that grid fin started oscillating, but the landing burn looked super smooth, even with one engine out.
One of the forward flaps appears to be disintegrating...
Mission Control Audio: "Ship approaching max-Q. Temperatures are dropping."
Mission Control Audio: "Ship passed through max-Q."
Mission Control Audio: "Starship is subsonic."
That was incredible. Can't wait for ground footage of the ship landing burn.
Looks like one booster engine is out. Max-Q occurred around the right time, though (T+1:01).
Landing burn and soft splashdown of the booster!
Super impressive, especially given that the booster lost an engine early on, which must have eaten into the propellant budget.
Starship is stacked.
Road closure is scheduled for "possible flight".
New T-0 is 20 minutes into the launch window.
Weather is looking good.
Go America and Defender 1 range security boat move into position. Hopefully no wayward boats.
Liftoff!
Hot staging, and boostback burn!
Ship R-vac engines cutoff, followed shortly by center engines cutoff, and nominal insertion.
Hot stage ring jettison!
Ship camera feed reacquired at T+36:56. Nice view of one of the flaps with earth in the background.
SpaceX webcast hosts return at T+40:33.
Great to see the full flight paths achieved, that means tons of data they can use for future iterations on the design. Getting to see it all happen live on video is such a treat!
Reentry plasma is visible! Ship orientation looks more controlled than for IFT-3.
Mission Control Audio: "Temperature increasing on the nose, within expected ranges."
Mission Control Audio: "Passing through 85 km, flaps have control of the vehicle."
Mission Control Audio: "Starship approaching peak heating. Nose temperatures still increasing, within expected ranges."
Mission Control Audio: "Starship is now in expected peak heating."
Mission Control Audio: "Starship experiencing 0.5 G of acceleration. Ship remains on good reentry trajectory. Nose temperatures have stopped increasing."
Mission Control Audio: "Engine chill for landing burn."
Mission Control Audio: "Starship remains on a good reentry trajectory."
Propellant load is under way.
SpaceX webcast has started. Kate Tice and Jessie Anderson are hosting.
Well fuck, I'm speechless. Amazing test flight!
Mission Control Audio: "R-vac prevalves are open."
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1798673089410294067
Now targeting 7:50 a.m. CT for launch of Starship’s fourth flight test. Weather conditions are 95% favorable. The webcast will go live ~30 minutes ahead of liftoff
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1798682619435229396
The Starship team is go for prop load
Awesome seeing condensation moving up as fuel gets loaded