SpaceX Triumphs with First-Ever Soft Splashdown of Starship and Super Heavy Booster on Flight 4 Mission

 SpaceX Starship splashdown 

SpaceX has begun a test flight of its Starship rocket for the fourth time in more than a year at its Starbase development facility in South Texas. Named Flight 4, the flight moved the launch vehicle toward its goal of becoming a reusable rocket

As in the previous three missions, Flight 4 did not increase its payload and flew in a descending position. Unlike the previous missions, Flight 4 has a large Booster (Booster 11) and a high-speed ship (Ship 29) that falls very small. Check-out is at 7:50 am. CDT (8:50 a.m. EDT, 1250 UTC), close to opening a 120-minute window

On Wednesday, SpaceX put together 29 rockets and 11 boosters to create a 121-meter Starship rocket. In a statement published by X (formerly Twitter) on June 1, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said that "the main purpose of this mission is to enter the air and re-entry, especially at high temperatures." After the mission, he celebrated the return of the Starship "despite many damaged trees and hulls"

During Flight 3, the upper stage began to rotate uncontrollably, preventing the vehicle from generating power from one of the Raptor's six engines. But thanks to its ability to connect to the Starlink satellite Internet network, another part of SpaceX's business, the rocket can send images from a high-definition camera that show the recovery from the blanket of plasma

"A lack of control behavior resulted in an outbound entry and the spacecraft experienced higher temperatures than expected in both the safe and protected areas," SpaceX said in a blog post about its restart. "The most common cause of unplanned recording is closing the key to control the recording. SpaceX has added additional roll controls to future Starships to improve reentry control and better equipment to improve durability until the

crash

Meanwhile, the Advanced Heavy Booster on the final flight quickly shut down six of the 13 Raptor engines used during takeoff. , "The booster experienced a smaller fire than expected when contact was lost approximately 462 meters above the Gulf of Mexico and less than seven minutes into the mission," SpaceX said. "The most common cause of power failure during recovery is to keep blocking the filter where oxygen is delivered to the engines, leading to a loss of internal pressure in the turbo pumps of the engine."

"For aircraft 4 and above, the heavy lifters have additional equipment and oxygen tanks to improve the efficiency of the propulsion filter."

Now, after the success of Flight 4, Musk prepared a big launch for Flight 5: he grabbed the Super Heavy Booster using a launch device called "chopsticks"

Lunar Vision

Flight 4 is an important mission not only for SpaceX, but also for NASA. The rocket will take center stage when the company launches the Artemis 3 mission, which is currently scheduled for September 2026. The development of the rocket will serve as a lunar probe for the Artemis 3 astronauts. and the as-yet-unnamed Artemis 4. He told Spaceflight Now with the pilot 4

"It's good to see the lessons learned from [flights 1 and 2] and see how they are applied in production, in production, in operations like Flight 3 ,” Watson-Morgan said. "There are no problems around the Raptor. There is no fire and, frankly, the consistency and the engines are very good. If we can get all the engines going, that's a big win for us."

He said that while the Raptor has increased the level of Flight 3, it is not a success, there is still a lot of time to achieve success. Watson-Morgan said they should launch in the second half of 2024 or early 2025

is undergoing changes, improvements and changes," said Watson-Morgan. "And all those things added to the improved building process."

One of Watson-Morgan's achievements at NASA was the transfer of propellant, which carried liquid oxygen (LOX) from a tank on the ship's head to a main tank of LOX aloft. This is in fulfillment of the $53.2 million Tipping Point contract with NASA's Space Technology Directorate (STMD), which will support the delivery of 10 metric tons of

. STMD representatives reiterated SpaceX's belief that it was a successful demonstration. This is the first step to being able to transfer a spacecraft to a spacecraft, one of the most important parts of SpaceX's Artemis moon landing mission

SpaceX's idea is to launch an underground version of the spaceship. A spacecraft is launched to board the spacecraft and transfer the filter, which will be transferred to the HLS version of the Starship before it heads to the Moon

“Prop transfer is really the main thing in other planets. Of course it is. That's the key to Mars, that's the key to the South Pole, that's our long range, and we're doing everything we can to prepare for that to help SpaceX do that," Watson - said Morgan. "We do everything. we can help the blue, because they also have their thoughts." how much generator should be transferred

“Based on the six tanks. It depends on how much money we want to transfer. Does it depend on what other goals we want to demonstrate and where we want to perform the flight test?” Watson-Morgan said. "So it could be just a couple, it could be more than a couple. So everything depends on our goals."

"One of the things I appreciate about SpaceX is that they are willing to open up , warm up and open the number of any goal if NASA thinks we need it, depending on the time


Although he was limited in what he could say about it, Watson-Morgan also said that SpaceX is developing a small engine to help with the prop transfer demonstration. He said that progress and development is expected this year

“Our team likes it. This machine was developed in less than half a year and so far it is working very well," he said

Starship Expansion

Part of the Catalyst transfer time depends on the ability to start many starship projects from the material. more than one turret, which is currently available for SpaceX. The company is building a second tower under the Starbase. , To accomplish that, parts and other equipment were manufactured at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and shipped to Texas. In addition to the four towers that were released earlier this year and this week, two more elements are being added to the ship, as well as the so-called "tree" of the towers and their lifting system

Watson-Morgan said that transfer operations could be performed from the Starbase's two turrets, but NASA wanted to see the Starship's launch capability at KSC. Next week, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will host a series of public meetings to gather input and allow the launch of approximately 44 stars per year through Assembly Release 39A



At the same time, the Department of the Air Force is conducting a similar inspection of the Starship launch at Space Launch Complex 37, the first launch site for the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 heavy rocket, or rocket. new look. The seat is called SLC-50

“We really want to see him. We need to see an unknown demonstration, that's what we want to see before that to make sure everything is in place, "Watson-Morgan

SpaceX's HLS contract with NASA also includes an interplanetary landing before the Artemis 3 mission is completed work in the area.Moon

Humans in Loop

As they develop human-level models of this star are also collected at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Calling them "users" for short, Watson-Morgan said the company provides insights and ideas about how certain aspects of the vehicle work, such as installation, control systems and interventions

He said that the HLS company is working with the astronauts Raja Chari and Randy Bresnik, the latter of which is part of the system "from the beginning." Watson-Morgan said members of the astronaut office were also in the control room. , "You have a governing body of human organization, where the requirements are changed or updated, or how things are done, going through the behavior of the organization and the people work to vote," he said

On April 30, at the SpaceX facility in Hawthorne, California, NASA astronaut Doug "Wheels" Wheelock and Axiom Space astronaut Peggy Whitson conducted the first joint test of the Axiom pressurized aircraft using a mock-up of the elevator and the atmosphere. . .

"Overall, we are very pleased with the performance of the astronauts on the control panel and their ability to complete the difficult tasks they will need to complete before reaching the Moon," said Logan Kennedy, space operations manager for NASA's HLS program. said. . , statement. "The test also showed that the space in the airlock, in the seat and on the elevator is sufficient for the tasks that the astronauts have planned."

?A short show

With the Starship test campaign, SpaceX achieved a much shorter time between launches. This is partly due to the occasional minor injury, but it is also due to the FAA's work. Flight

Flight 2 arrived only 212 days after Flight 1, Flight 3 arrived 117 days after Flight 2, and Flight 4 only 84 days after Flight 3. Watson-Morgan said he understands that SpaceX wants to get the first proof of Starbase. . , but he knows that they need a learning curve of previous flights, which can take a long time

"Even if it's every two to three months, that's still a successful testing campaign, and each of these tests mitigates different risks," Watson-Morgan said. "From NASA's point of view, when we see each launch, we have a deep understanding of how all the machines work, how they work, like ISP (individual reflection ), etc., and so on



In support of the original license amendment to authorize Flight 4, the FAA said that SpaceX has established three conditions for access to the starship at the end of the mission "that do not require an inspection if the vehicle is lost." , "The FAA approves such conditions as the cause of the damage test after examining them as part of the aviation safety and risk assessment of the aircraft and confirming that they meet the requirements for public safety, " the company said in a statement. "If there is another problem aboard the Starship, it may support the investigation and failure of the Super Heavy booster."

This language, along with the good performance of Flight 4, can open the way to the launch of Flight 5 level

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