SpaceX's Starship Successfully splashed down in the Indian Ocean
On June 6, TapTechNews. Although the signal was interrupted and the fuselage was severely damaged, SpaceX officials confirmed that the Starship had successfully splashed down in the Indian Ocean, unlocking a new milestone.
At around 8:50 PM Beijing time on June 6, the SpaceX Starship was successfully ignited and started its fourth test flight mission, and then separated from the super heavy booster as planned.
About 9 minutes after the launch, the Starship successfully entered the intended orbit. Subsequently, the B11 super heavy booster has successfully splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico.
About 47 minutes after the launch, the Starship began to re-enter the atmosphere. Compared to the third test flight, which did not perform perfectly at this stage, this Starship chose a relatively gentle ballistic trajectory and used more time to slow down the speed gradually to reduce the violent impact when entering the high-density air.
About 62 minutes after the launch, the altitude of the Starship dropped to within 33 kilometers, exiting the communication blackout zone, indicating that the Starship successfully withstood the violent friction of the atmosphere.
However, at the last moment before splashing down, the video showed that the Starship was severely damaged under the friction of the atmosphere, the wing surface was almost burned through, and the signal was interrupted several times, but it still did not get out of control and finally successfully splashed down and recovered at sea.
SpaceX said that the focus of this test flight is no longer to enter the orbit, but to show the recovery ability of the Starship and the super heavy rocket. The main goal will be to use the super heavy booster to conduct landing combustion and soft splash down in the Gulf of Mexico and realize the controlled entry of the Starship.
The Starship is the tallest and strongest rocket ever made by humans, with a height of 120 meters. It consists of a 70-meter-tall super heavy booster at the bottom equipped with 33 Raptor engines and a 50-meter-tall reusable spaceship cabin. Its Earth orbital payload capacity exceeds 100 tons and can send goods and astronauts to Earth orbit, the moon, Mars, and even farther deep space.
On April 20, 2023, the Starship rocket and spaceship integrated system conducted the first test flight, but the rocket exploded shortly after takeoff. According to Agence France-Presse, the rocket engine malfunctioned, and the first-stage booster did not separate from the spaceship above. On November 18 of the same year, SpaceX conducted the second test flight of the Starship rocket. The rocket successfully separated from the first stage and the second stage less than 3 minutes after takeoff, but then the mission control center lost contact with the Starship spaceship and was forced to activate the self-destruct system. The US Cable News Network described that the Starship second test flight went farther than the attempt in April 2023. On March 14 this year, the Starship rocket and spaceship integrated system conducted the third test flight, and the second stage spaceship of the Starship lost contact during the re-entry atmosphere stage.