The fourth test of Starship has been a winner . The Starship and Super Heavy booster combo lifted off from SpaceX ’s Starbase in Boca Chica , Texas , at 7:50 am local time . The psychometric test was for Super Heavy to demo that it could land back on Earth and for Starship to successfully reenter through the air after having die into range .

Neither Starship nor Super Heavy landed . They are designed to do so but it was not part of this run . Super Heavy used a virtual tug , acting like it was landing on land and reignite the engines just above the sea of the Gulf of Mexico , demonstrating that it can be done .

spaceship reached an elevation of 212 km ( 132 miles ) before coming back to Earth . The ship got circumvent up during re - entering , with the flap infract apart a minute and a camera getting check . It safely attain last velocity and was able to re - orient itself and perform its first - ever landing burning , before safely swash down .

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Put together , Starship and Super Heavy are the big and most muscular rockets ever built . In sum , they make up a roquette that is 122 meters ( 400 feet ) tall . NASA’sSpace Launch System ( SLS)rocket , which will be used to take astronauts back to the Moon , is 98 meters ( 322 foot ) improbable . For historic comparison , Super Heavy has twice the push of the Saturn V , which strike the astronauts of theApollo missionsto the Moon . In the hereafter , SpaceX hopes to increase the thrust by up to three metre what was attain by Saturn V.

SLS was briefly the track record holder of tallest and most herculean roquette ever build . But if there is a competition , it is friendly . SLS and Starship have to work together to return spaceman to the Moon . SLS will bring theOrion capsuleto Lunar scope – a special one call the Near - Rectilinear Halo Orbit – where it will meet Starship . spaceship then will ferry the astronauts to and from the Moon ’s aerofoil .

Without spaceship , there is currently no way of getting to the lunar open , hence the grandness of these test for the future of lunar exploration . Starship needs to demonstrate continuous guard and success . Two more tests are expect this twelvemonth but SpaceX has not yet share any details about them .

spaceship has so far achieved several successes but all its flight of stairs have ended in fire . The first launch inApril 2023showed that the projectile can fly but Super Heavy and Starship could n’t divide which led to SpaceX deliberatelyblowing up the rocketto keep it from veer off course .

There was a lot of discussion about the first mental test being rush at the behest of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk , who was claimed to be keen to make a weed - related joke about the launching particular date as it lift off on 4/20 . Another point of evidence of the charge job of the launch was the panoptic damage the rocket did to Starbase – its launching program . Its powerful railway locomotive terminate up blowing out a chunk of concrete from beneath its orbital launching climb andraining debrisin the neighbourhood .

Thesecond testwas in November 2023 . It was another fond achiever , building on the first launch . The Super Heavy booster dose explode , but luckily after it had separated from Starship . But Starship too terminate up going boom . striking was lost between spaceship and ground control after 9 minutes and the onboard reckoner explode the ship .

Thethird testwas the closemouthed to a complete succeeder . It took place in March and was the farthest and fastest that spaceship has ever flown . Both Super Heavy and Starship were supposed to do a soft splash landing place , but neither did . Super Heavy hit the Gulf of Mexico as fast as a F1 car . spaceship burn over the Indian Ocean instead of splashing down in it .