Watching the spacecraft return to Earth last week was perhaps more exciting than seeing it lift off the pad.
SpaceX launched its giant Starship rocket for the fourth time ever on June 6, sending the giant vehicle into space from its Starbase site in South Texas.
The flight plan called for both Starship stages — the super-heavy propulsion first stage and the 165-foot (50 m) upper stage, called Starship, or just ship — to orient themselves back to Earth for an ocean water landing. The Super Heavy was supposed to land in the Gulf of Mexico, while the ship targeted the Indian Ocean. Both stages managed to hold their landing, and we got a great look at Super Heavy’s homecoming.
On Saturday (June 8), SpaceX Published on X A 25-second video of the final stages of Super Heavy’s descent through Earth’s atmosphere. The video, which combines footage from a boat or drone with that captured by Super Heavy cameras on board, captures the roar of the booster’s Raptor engines as it fires into a landing afterburner just above the waves.
The Super Heavy appears to be fairly intact, which you can’t quite say for a ship. The upper stage was much higher, faster and farther than Super Heavy, so its return was even more fiery and dramatic. For example, several heat shield tiles were missing, and one panel nearly burned due to frictional heating, but the ship managed to hold on until it hit the water.
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The spacecraft’s performance has improved on each of its four test flights, all of which occurred in the past 14 months. On the first flight, for example, Starship’s two stages failed to separate as planned, and SpaceX blew up the rolling vehicle about four minutes after launch.
Stage separation occurred in Flight 2, but it was also relatively short, ending after just eight minutes. Flight 3 lasted approximately 50 minutes, but neither the Super Heavy nor the ship reached the planned landing areas; Both vehicles crashed while returning to Earth.
SpaceX is preparing for the fifth launch of Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. But we may have already seen the last of the very heavy oceans; Shortly after the launch on June 6, Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, suggested that the company might Try to catch the returning booster With the “chopstick” arms of Starbase’s giant launch tower.
