Starship launch: Fourth test succeeds as both stages splash into sea

SpaceX’s Starship, the largest rocket ever constructed, has made a successful fourth test flight, with both its first and second stages carrying out their missions as planned before splashing down into different oceans.

After lift-off from SpaceX’s site at Boca Chica, Texas, at 7.50am local time, one of the 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy first stage failed to ignite. Despite this, the rocket continued to space and both stages separated cleanly.

Super Heavy splashed down as planned around 7 minutes after lift-off in the Gulf of Mexico, not far from the launch site. The booster successfully fired its engines after plummeting back to Earth from over 100 kilometres up, slowing from over 4000 kilometres per hour to a hover just metres above the sea, before the live feed cut off and it plunged into the water.

Meanwhile, Starship reached orbit at an altitude of over 200 kilometres and travelled at more than 27,000 kilometres per hour. During its descent back to Earth, at around 60 kilometres above the surface, livestream video from SpaceX showed apparent damage to one of its four control fins, and the camera lens appeared to crack. As it reached the Indian Ocean, it appeared to hover before falling into the sea.

This fourth flight test focused on getting Starship back from orbit after its previous test reached space for the first time. SpaceX chose to perform “soft splashdowns” in the ocean because a touchdown on land is currently deemed too risky. Instead, the vehicles use their engines to slow their descent, line up as if they were landing back at base and gently plop into the water.

Eventually, the hope is that returning from space to dry land will allow the vehicles to be refurbished and reused, as SpaceX already does with its Falcon 9 rocket.

Today’s launch was the company’s fourth with Starship, and included software and hardware upgrades, and changes to the launch procedure, after lessons learned from previous tests. The first test in April last year exploded before the first and second stages could separate, while another in November saw the second, upper stage reach space but self-destruct when it stopped transmitting data, with the first stage blowing up just after separation.

SpaceX’s third Starship test flight on 14 March was at least a partial success as it reached space, carried out fuel transfer tests and travelled further and faster than ever before. But the craft failed to make its scheduled soft landing after losing attitude control mid-flight.