A day to remember for Musk and Space X. Starship, the most powerful rocket ever designed, has just completed its fourth launch test. And finally, it was a success across the board. In fact, on June 6, the rocket took off from the Space safe and sound, both the Starship spacecraft and the Falcon Super Heavy rocket with which it was launched into space.
The result was not at all obvious, given the precedents. The first test, in April 2023, ended with the explosion of the rocket a few minutes after launch. The second, in November of the same year, went as far as separating the two stages of the rocket, but ended with an explosion eight minutes after takeoff. For the third, in March 2024, things went a little better, with the explosion of the rocket during re-entry, and an orbital flight of about 50 minutes for the Starship spacecraft, which however ended with an uncontrolled re-entry and the destruction of the vehicle.
The fourth test, however, finally went as hoped. The rocket took off showing problems only with one of its 33 engines (which did not cause problems because they are built to be redundant), managed to separate without difficulty from the second stage (the spacecraft), and then made a perfect re-entry, simulating a vertical landing (essential in the future to make the launchers reusable, as happens with the Falcon 9 rockets already in use).
Super Heavy has splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico pic.twitter.com/hIY3Gkq57k
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 6, 2024
For its part, the Starship spacecraft traveled for 65 minutes outside the Earth's atmosphere, and then performed the re-entry, a “soft landing” at the designated point in the Indian Ocean. Despite some problems with the shielding of one of the flaps, which fell apart during re-entry, the landing was considered a success.
Obviously, a successful test will not be enough to consider the development of Starship concluded. A project that Space The road is still long for now, but Musk intends to follow it in forced stages: he has already announced at least 6 launch tests for Starship in 2024 alone (another four therefore), and last month he has already carried out the engine ignition tests for the rocket it will use in the fifth test, which at this point could be announced as early as the next few weeks.