What Exactly Happened On SpaceX's Fourth Starship Launch Attempt? 

I thought for sure when we began seeing the flap disintegrate that we were going to lose the ship entirely! Some engineers need to be patted on the shoulder!

Excellent summation. Thank you.

I think this flight would best be described as “scrappy”, the booster and ship both had issues and despite the issues both successfully completed their missions. Pretty crazy

Excellent concise commentary.

That melting flap held on like a hero from old stories.

Not word or second wasted. Very nicely summarised. Exactly what I was looking for thank you 😊

We demand an apology to peoples saying using stainless steel for rocket is stupid.

They've got to retrieve that ship. What a piece of history!

That entire flight was pretty badass

the most based flap in space flight history!

Bro, that flap fought until the end, holy shit, usually this extent of damage in any spacecraft would be the end of it, but just shows how resiliant Starship is, probably down to the material it's made, and it's construction, just show that even in the worse situation, it's still possible to get it to land.

The most important takeback from this is that there IS actually some leeway for error in the window of success. In a way this launch made me more confident than a complete success with no problems whatsoever.

How are you getting these videos out so quickly! Awesome job. Underrated channel.

Just a jaw dropping event all round..... Something i will remember all my life just as the falcon heavy launch..... We will sail throughout the Cosmos.... ,o7

The best, most detailed and concise summary of this launch. Well done

Excitement happened

Very good summary, thank for doing this.

This was extremely thrilling to watch live!!

Was able to watch the launch live through the stream. Hats off to the engineers and controllers at SpaceX

Not having to file another mishap report with the FAA would be a great accomplishment.

Many would say that this is their first successful test flight, but I would argue that any test flight where new information was gathered and faced incremental improvements over previous test flights were already successful. Unlike the Falcon 1 test flight, the success parameter is very different for Starship. Either way, it's funny that it took the 4th try for Starship's to complete all the objectives. Just like Falcon 1.

First time all mission objectives met, this is a major milestone in the Starship program, now comes the long task of analysing all the data and making necessary changes to make sure the flaps stay in one piece. The booster had a pretty much flawless flight, hope it stuck the landing because if it did they may actually try to catch it next flight.

Well done highlight video 🙏

Lol 2:46 I knew it was the HSR 😂😂! Great videos as usual.

Excellent video - You guys consistently do a great job

That was beyond awesome!

Excellent summary!

i'm ashamed of myself for forgetting about this, i will try my best to follow this program again.

What an amazing success, can't wait for ITF 5!🚀🚀👍👍

Right On Great Video

Such a nail biter test flight. I actually clapped when Starship finally made it to land. Excitement guaranteed!

thanks for the news

Who's ready for some goalposts to be moved?!

Great work! Congrats on your speedy video and analysis/discussion. The TPS along the leading edges is really tough to design for reusability. But, the vehicle is an excellent test bed and will, undoubtedly, give engineers better opportunities to prefect these designs.

Man, those must have been some crispy fish when ship and super heavy touched down

It launched, magnificently

This starship would make a great museum piece.

SpaceX should retrieve both Starship and Super Heavy Booster from the sea and put them in a display!

To cool!

It was glorious!🎉

I love those "quick fixes" by Elon - by jettison the stage ring we got to see this amazing Starship progress! Keep the magic going!

What a beast!

Wow. SpaceX's choice of high temperature Stainless Steel was inspired. I had a feeling that even if tiles came off, it would hold up pretty well. I just didn't think it would hold up *this* well. Amazing resilience. But those old 1970s Shuttle engineers are probably laughing at those naive SpaceX engineers on how they were going to reinvent heat shield tile tech. It took Rockwell several years to get the shuttle tiles flightworthy, and they still continued to come off throughout the program.

Just imagine, 20 years ago seeing something like this fall from the sky would have us thinking it was alien technology. Now, we're able to do it ourselves.

Well done everyone in Space X

That was nuts to watch

I wanna see start ship after its landed what it looks like and how the sacecraft held up

Any info if someone filmed splashdown somehow?

At 1:42 there is an electrical discharge off the grid fin. Didn't notice that during the live stream.

You gotta ask yourself, why did the plasma eat the flap? Is anybody asking that question or just saying, "great success".

I guess, IFT5 will probably look at fixing the problems with the engines and the flap, (hopefully they attempt to catch the super heavy with the chopsticks)

Was there any video of the booster or starship coming down?

Unlike the previous, this Starship test-flight WAS a success. Well done. That the stabilizer fin, despite having an atmospheric blow-torch cutting into it, held on to complete the mission, is impressive. Reminds me of those B-17 Flying Fortresses over Germany during WWII: they got the crap shot out of them but many aicraft kept flying, fulfilling their mission and returning crews to base.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that these fins or flaps are problematic. The Starliner was in re-entry in the right attitude, so adding tiles on the bottom where the plasma directly impacts the Starliner doesn't seem like it will solve the issue. The plume of plasma will still flow around and be able to destroy the flaps. The flaps need to be covered with tiles or ablative, but how would that work when they need to remain moveable and must have a flexible joint? So maybe ditch the flaps and go to thrusters that can be vectored?

Save Flappy

Yikes, that was a seat grabber. KUDOS.

Correct assessment...ATTEMPT! Your channel is the apex of unbiased reporting in 2024. (So many other channels are calling this launch, and the 3 prior, 100% successes.)

a human could have survived that ride!

So, next steps, better, stronger, thinner steal sheets.

🖖🏽

Where's the ships in the ocean tracking booster and starship. Surely they must have.

Why do you have the word "Attempt" in your title?

First view, first comment!

Too bad they can’t recover the second stage to see how much damage was done.

Elon musk has said some time ago the flaps design should be improved.

I am just so proud of all these guys. Only in the USA could his happen! This is what free markets and capitalism can accomplish.

Will they retrieve the ships?

Did Starship sink, or did it manage to float such that it can be retrieved?

I think the biggest question after the landing is how the other side faired compared to the camera side. This would help determine how much design change will be needed. Is it tile improvements or a complete redesign of the way the flap is attached. Having moving parts in such a high pressure area is almost impossible to keep the heat from between the two parts.

Starship landed in the ocean. Did they sink it or are they going to recover it?

Did this happen today?

During cast the reporters mentioned they won’t be retrieving starship, is it the same case for the booster? I know it’s in open ocean but still seems like a waste. Also anyone noticed the flap after burning up some took on a wing like shape. I just thought it was cool.

I am confused. At the last of stage of the ship, the layout of the engines at the bottom left corner showed no engine firing, then how the ship speed could be slowed down?

Aah yes they pulled an Apollo 7. Good Work SpaceX!😊

SpaceX takes Agile development to a whole other level!

Still no payload? Not even ballast?

GORILLA TAPE WORKS GREAT ON MY TRUCK . DOES ELON KNOW ABOUT IT?

Booster was over 300kph slower at 68km separation point. Nearly 5% under performance vs IFT3 and slower again vs IFT2. Is this because of a single engine failing? How will it perform with any sort of payload and an engine failure?

I totally missed the flight and wanted to find out exactly what happened. This video is exactly what I was looking for. I wanted to find out everything important that happened without having to watch for 1.5 hours, this was perfect. As an amateur fabricator I approve of their technique for developing this ship. I think blasting off a bunch of ships and fixing problems after each one is going to be the fastest way to get this thing done. It looks like everyone else is working on achieving perfection before ever blasting off a rocket. The old technique I think is slower, if you look at what Boeing has done and also Blue Origin, it is taking them longer. Bear in mind you cannot compare the Boeing starliner with starship, instead that ship is what was competing with Falcon 9, which has been pretty much perfected for a long time. I expect that once they get Starship fully functional, they will start using some more lightweight expensive high-tech materials in the construction. Right now they know that these things are getting destroyed on the first use so they probably aren't trying to spend a bunch of money on exotic materials when they can avoid it. They may eventually even replace the stainless steel to get the weight down after this thing is operational. They definitely need to upgrade and over engineer those flaps from what we've seen on this flight. Mother nature basically took a plasma cutting torch to that thing.

It looks like they are going to figure this out eventually. BUT the heat shield? That technology just ain't here yet. I do not know what they are thinking.

Elon tweeted that "many tiles" were lost from Starship. That may be a significant setback. Aside from the TPS issues, the flight was a huge success for SpaceX today. Edit: Hopefully the many tiles were all from the flap that failed. That would be easier to address than random tiles from different locations on the ship.

Will Starship be found floating on water and checked?

The rocket tiles not working, glue not strong enough. Tiles need to be stronger and not burn off. Missing engines be fixed.

Presumably the ship is bobbing about on the ocean and it's going to be recovered and examined in detail all over, not just those parts in view of the camera. Allowing it to sink to the bottom of the ocean sounds a little dumb.

too good to be true. Maybe the ship will blow up next flight. The flaps are actuated electrically? If hydraulically then I wonder how the oil coped.

With this sort of progress they may reach orbit in 10 or 12 years....

Meanwhile SpaceX successfully tests Starship that can carry 100 astronauts rather than 2.

Prepare to hear that this was a complete success while Starliner yesterday was a total failure

First it was a false characterization of the account, then when informed it was Jack Smith who fessed ip, now you want me to comment on a discovery dispute - pick one? So obviously biased.

Jeff Bozo, Eat your heart out!

Can’t reuse after landing in water . And the grift goes on

never gonna be crew ready or safe

Impressively “successful” by sx standards (huge amount of data), BUT THOSE TILES ARE GOING TO NEED WORK, maybe some fundamental rethinking. Would be interested in people’s thoughts about how the thermal protection system needs to be “tweaked” to get quick turnaround reusability. Personally I have only one suggestion, and that is … (actually too complicated and not in a position to pontificate on an opinion based on few facts).

Got a LONG way to go before it’s safe for humans to board

never going to moon with spaceX

Still, even when successfully operating it’ll be an impotent rocket compared to the Apollo rockets

I'd say it's 40% success and 60% failure. When splashing down, the starship was almost destroyed, so little pieces could be collected for study and future improvement.

Congrats with landing a coffin.

Onscreen telemetry showed no engines firing at the end. "Landing burn" in this case must mean a burning rocket. .

That flap didn't hold on by accident. It had to have been designed with that specific failure in mind. BTW, Musk promised if they got a booster soft touchdown they would try to catch it next time. I will lose my shix if they pull that off. It will be a HUGE gamble.