At around 20:50 on the evening of June 6, 2024, Beijing time, the Starship successfully completed its fourth orbital-level test flight at the Boca Chica Starship Base in Texas, USA, and the first-level super-heavy booster successfully landed softly. Previously, the starship has completed three test flights, on April 20, 2023, November 18, 2023, and March 14, 2024. Among them, the first launch failed, the second was successful in a certain sense, and the third was successful. It is reported that the purpose of the fourth test flight of the Starship is to complete the controlled reentry of the first-level super-heavy booster and the second-level “Starship” to withstand the extreme high temperature environment of the Earth’s atmosphere. In this flight test, both the second-level “Starship” and the first-level super-heavy booster returned to Earth intact, and the test was a complete success. SpaceX founder Musk posted on social media: “Starship’s” super-heavy booster successfully landed softly, and the team achieved an epic success. According to SpaceX, the test flight completed all set tasks and goals.
Extended reading: Space Exploration Technologies Inc was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in California, USA. It is the first private enterprise in the world to launch a manned spacecraft. The company owns rocket launch business, starlink business and space tourism business. Starship is a starship-superheavy combination developed by SpaceX. It can send more than 100 tons of cargo into Earth orbit, and can also send cargo and astronauts to the moon, Mars and beyond. According to SpaceX founder Musk, the ultimate goal of the Starship is to take people and cargo to Mars and establish a base. It is reported that starships are divided into multiple versions, mainly including test version starships (prototypes), moon landing version starships, cargo version starships, etc. The Starship first-stage super-heavy booster uses Raptor engines and uses liquid oxygen/methane as propellant. The surface of the starship is covered with heat-insulating tiles. When re-entering the atmosphere, the side covered with the heat-insulating tiles re-enters forward and keeps the belly facing down for heat insulation. For specific information about the starship, please see: At 8 pm on June 6, Beijing time, Musk’s starship will witness the history of spaceflight!
