SpaceX's summary of IFT4
SpaceX's summary of IFT4
Official confirmation of the relight then. I wonder why it didn't show up on the telemetry?
They did leave two tiles off the aft end and put in a thinner tile. Possible that those spots burned through and damaged the sensors, but the sea-level engines were healthy enough to still work.
Yeah this seems likely. You could see from the altitude and speedometer (can't think of better word for it rn) that the rocket slowed down hovering for a short moment before accelerating again and falling into water.
Anyways, I'd be much more interested for spacex to release info on what wasn't as successful.
Flight 4 ended with Starship igniting its three center Raptor engines and executing the first flip maneuver and landing burn since our suborbital campaign, followed by a soft splashdown of the ship in the Indian Ocean one hour and six minutes after launch.
I still can't believe that happened! Gives me so much confidence on their in-space propellant storage too, for some reason.
I just wish we had a video of it!
I know it’s a self-written report and therefore trying to put a positive spin on things (rightfully so - they did amazingly), but they didn’t even mention the exciting things that they want to do better next time, like better heat shields on the flaps.