SpaceX Starship - IFT-4 - Starbase TX - Launch Thread and Post Launch Discussion

[Ben W]

Ya.. but there was not single terrestrial visual of IFT-3 booster landing. And that is next door in the Gulf. And this Ship is going to land somewhere in the Indian ocean boondocks.

IFT-3 booster landed some 150km off-course, IIRC, which may be why there was no external landing footage. (And IFT-3 ship landed everywhere from 0-500km off-course, simultaneously.) Hoping both stages land closer to target this time, and in one piece!

 

[Electroman]

Hoping both stages land closer to target this time, and in one piece!

And hoping there will be a video taken from a drone ship or a chase plane

 

[Electroman]

Surprising no one here posted any links to live official SpaceX telecast ?

 

[mongo]

Surprising no one here posted any links to live official SpaceX telecast ?

Official on X:
x.com

SpaceX

 

[mongo]

Now 7:50 CT, 8:50 eastern

https://twitter.com/x/status/1798673089410294067

 

[scaesare]

The SpaceX livestream just confirmed the hot-stage ring jettison is a temporary thing for test....

 

[scaesare]

We need a chat-channel while watching these ...

On edit... I just did one, I'll be on: Join the Tesla SpaceX Fans Discord Server!

 

[scaesare]

Raptor down

 

[HVM]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1798700284191166849

https://twitter.com/x/status/1798701489097183286

 

[ecarfan]

WOW. The flight looks to be fantastic so far. The booster splashdown looked perfect, but we don’t know yet if it hit its GPS target. Anxious to see the ship again and hoping it is maintaining attitude control!

I was thinking that SpaceX would be able to show us realtime ship telemetry via Starlink throughout the mission but apparently not.

Keep thinking of things to add: disappointing that one booster engine appeared not to have ignited, but happy to see that, at least from the point of view of the ship flap camera, no tiles are missing.

 

[zoomer0056]

Surprising no one here posted any links to live official SpaceX telecast ?

Watch on YT Space Affairs channel.

 

[ecarfan]

View of starship is back, and it appears it has a stable attitude!

 

[scaesare]

WOW. The flight looks to be fantastic so far. The booster splashdown looked perfect, but we don’t know yet if it hit its GPS target. Anxious to see the ship again and hoping it is maintaining attitude control!

I was thinking that SpaceX would be able to show us realtime ship telemetry via Starlink throughout the mission but apparently not.

Keep thinking of things to add: disappointing that one booster engine appeared not to have ignited, but happy to see that, at least from the point of view of the ship flap camera, no tiles are missing.

@Electroman and I chatting on the Discord Channel about that... looks like one Raptor out on ascent and a diff one on splashdown

 

[Grendal]

SpaceX

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.

www.spacex.com

 

[scaesare]

So it looks like SpaceX is deliberately leaving 2 tiles off the ship... surmised to be a test of ability to withstand single tile failures:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1798318343155597456

They just confirmed this was a deliberate test

 

[scaesare]

Flap burn thru, cracked cam lens... and it's sill going... crazy

 

[scaesare]

Flap burn thru, cracked cam lens... and it's sill going... crazy

THAT. WAS. AWESOME!

 

[zoomer0056]

Awesome, huge success! Go SpaceX, go USA.

 

[ecarfan]

The SpaceX commentators and the loop seems to indicate that the landing burn did occur but the ship engine graphic did not show engine ignition.

But it does seem that the ship did the flip and there was a soft landing!

 

[Electroman]

The SpaceX commentators and the loop seems to indicate that the landing burn did occur but the ship engine graphic did not show engine ignition.

But it does seem that the ship did the flip and there was a soft landing!

Did the flip happen too late and too close to the ground? Did the engine light up too close to the ground? Did it even light up?