SpaceX Starship’s Fourth Test Flight Is Rocket’s Most Successful Yet

It’s a momentous occasion for SpaceX as both Starship and the Super Heavy booster successfully splashed down back on Earth.

Thursday, June 06, 2024 at 04:33 PM ET

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SpaceX camera crews provide an out-of-this-world view of the moment Starship launched from Boca Chica, Texas, on its fourth integrated flight test on Thursday. [Courtesy: SpaceX]

Key Takeaways:

SpaceX's Starship successfully completed its fourth integrated flight test (IFT-4), achieving its first soft ocean splashdown despite experiencing flap damage and lost heat shield tiles during reentry.
Both the Starship spacecraft and its Super Heavy booster successfully splashed down in their respective target oceans, fulfilling the primary mission objective of surviving extreme reentry conditions and gathering crucial data for reusability.
This successful test marks a major milestone for Starship's development as a fully reusable transportation system and is vital for its role in NASA's Artemis III mission to land humans on the Moon.

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A damaged flap and multiple lost tiles weren’t enough to stop SpaceX’s Starship—the largest and most powerful rocket ever constructed—from making its first successful splashdown on Thursday.

Starship and the Super Heavy booster finally made it back to Earth following the spacecraft’s fourth integrated flight test (IFT-4), which was the main goal of the mission that launched from Boca Chica, Texas. As SpaceX put it, “the payload for this test was the data.”

Jack Daleo

Jack is a staff writer covering advanced air mobility, including everything from drones to unmanned aircraft systems to space travel—and a whole lot more. He spent close to two years reporting on drone delivery for FreightWaves, covering the biggest news and developments in the space and connecting with industry executives and experts. Jack is also a basketball aficionado, a frequent traveler and a lover of all things logistics.