SpaceX is targeting June 5 for the fourth flight test of its massive Starship rocket, pending approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The company completed a full wet dress rehearsal last week before removing the starship from the superheavy booster to complete final preparations ahead of launch.
SpaceX could stack the two rockets together this weekend and conduct another fuel test while awaiting FAA approval ahead of a June 5 launch attempt.
The fourth flight test will see Starship 29 teamed up with Super Heavy Booster 11 to try to outdo its predecessors. SpaceX indicated that the flight will follow the same flight path as the third test but will not perform an engine re-light during space, fuel transfer or payload bay door operations.
The goal of this flight is for both vehicles to sustain their respective re-entry through the atmosphere, a soft landing at sea for the Super Heavy, and a controlled re-entry for the starship.
To help the Super Heavy survive its journey back to Earth, SpaceX has made several hardware and software changes to prevent the same problems that occurred in the third flight test, including removing the hot stage ring from the top of the booster and a blocked filter. Prevented Raptor engines from lighting up during landing burn.
On the starship side, SpaceX made several changes, including adding additional thrusters to control the starship’s attitude while in its coast phase and prevent stalling, resulting in an uncontrolled re-entry on the third flight test.
With these changes in mind, do you think Starship’s fourth flight will be as good as the third, or will another issue backfire and SpaceX take more corrective action?
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