Elon Musk targets June 6 for Starship’s fourth test flight

SpaceX Plans Starship Rocket Launch Pending Regulatory Approval

New Delhi: SpaceX is aiming to launch Starship’s fourth test flight, which comes with many improvements, on June 6, said CEO Elon Musk on Sunday.

While the regulatory approval is pending, SpaceX aims to launch the 400-foot-tall Starship rocket along with the Heavy booster from SpaceX’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas at 7 a.m. CT on June 6.

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“Starship Flight 4, with many improvements, is aiming to launch on Thursday!” Musk said in a post on the social media platform X.com.

“The main goal of this mission is to get much deeper into the atmosphere during reentry, ideally through max heating,” he added.

In a blog post, SpaceX said that the fourth flight test looks to “achieve orbit to demonstrate the ability to return and reuse Starship and Super Heavy.”

“The primary objectives will be executing a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico with the Super Heavy booster and achieving a controlled entry of Starship.”

To achieve these and increase overall reliability, the company also announced several “software and hardware upgrades.”

Similar to the last three test flights, the company said that Flight 4 of Starship “does not require a deorbit burn for reentry, maximising public safety while still providing the opportunity to meet our primary objective of a controlled reentry.”

The flight will “bring us closer to the rapidly reusable future on the horizon” and help “build a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”