Starship Test 3 or Integrated Flight Test 3 (IFT3) was a huge success. Booster 10 and Ship 28 successfully lifted off at 8:25AM CT from Starbase, Texas. Hot staging was executed without a hitch: Booster 10 flipped and completed its boostback burn to make its way to the soft-landing site on the Indian Ocean. Ship 28 fired all 6 engines towards orbital velocity. Booster 10 successfully made it all the way down to where it attempted a landing burn, but at that point, only 3 out of 13 landing burn engines reignited, and the booster experienced a ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly’.
Ship 28 achieved orbital velocity. As per mission goals, all 6 engines were successfully shut down and the ship began to coast. Next on the demo checklist was the opening and closing of the ship’s payload doors (or as SpaceX affectionally refers to them, pez dispensers). This too was successfully completed, which means that IFT4 might launch with one or two Starlink satellites as demo payload to deploy in space. Next up was the successful ‘tipping point’ in-flight fuel transfer demonstration where liquid oxygen was transferred between two of Ship 28’s tanks. This demo will win SpaceX a $53M check from NASA. The idea is for Starships to serve as fuel tankers in space, especially useful for deep space expeditions, including for Artemis. The final test was to reignite one of Ship 28’s engines, but the SpaceX team decided to skip that one. Ship 28 began its descent burn but didn’t make it through the atmosphere, most likely blowing up under peak temperature.
All told, this was an amazing achievement by the SpaceX team. The world witnessed the largest object ever launched ascend to space. The onboard cameras captured spectacular visuals that SpaceX uploaded here. Reentry, for example, was streamed in real-time video from Starlink terminals onboard Ship 28. It was thrilling to watch. In keeping with SpaceX’s rapid iterative development approach, with luck, there might even be a Starship Test 4 as early as June 2024.
