SpaceX’s fourth integrated Starship flight launched from Starbase, Texas, at 7:50 a.m. Central Time on June 6, 2024. The FAA had authorized the flight two days earlier. It was a suborbital test, not an operational orbital mission: Super Heavy and Starship were intended to return to designated ocean areas rather than enter stable orbit. Both stages completed controlled landing-burn sequences and soft splashdowns, making Flight 4 a major success against its primary test objectives, while stopping short of demonstrating recovery, reuse or crew readiness.
What Starship Flight 4 was designed to test
Starship is a two-stage launch system built at SpaceX’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica, Texas. The first stage is the Super Heavy booster; the upper stage is Starship, which is also being developed as NASA’s Human Landing System for Artemis missions. Flight 4 was an uncrewed integrated flight test intended to collect data on ascent, stage separation, atmospheric return and controlled water landings.
SpaceX’s stated aim was to go farther through the flight profile than the previous three tests and begin demonstrating the behaviors required for eventual rapid reuse. The vehicle was deliberately flown on a trajectory that ended in water landings, so “success” has to be judged against those test goals rather than against the ultimate vision of an operational lunar transport.
Super Heavy’s planned return
- Complete its ascent burn and separate from Starship using hot staging.
- Flip, perform a boostback burn toward the Gulf of Mexico, and jettison the hot-stage adapter.
- Execute a landing burn and make a controlled splashdown.
Starship’s planned reentry
- Continue after separation through coast and atmospheric reentry.
- Survive peak heating while its flaps and attitude-control systems guided the vehicle.
- Ignite three engines for a controlled landing burn and splash down in the Indian Ocean.
Why the fourth flight mattered
The first three integrated tests progressively exercised more of the architecture, but none ended with both vehicles completing their intended return profiles. Flight 3 on March 14, 2024, reached space, demonstrated hot-stage separation and opened and closed Starship’s payload door, yet neither stage completed a successful splashdown. Those are separate milestones: reaching space, completing the planned trajectory, surviving reentry, performing a landing maneuver and recovering hardware are not interchangeable.
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Flight 4 therefore concentrated on the two hardest near-term demonstrations: Super Heavy’s controlled return and Starship’s survival through peak atmospheric heating. A booster landing burn and a spacecraft landing burn would show propulsion and guidance progress even though the stages would still be expended in the ocean.
Regulatory approval and safety conditions
The Federal Aviation Administration approved license authorization on June 4, 2024, and said in a June 5 statement that SpaceX had met applicable safety and other licensing requirements for the test. The authorization did not guarantee that launch conditions would remain favorable; weather, vehicle readiness or range constraints could still delay the attempt. FAA licensing statement
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The license modification included three test-induced-damage exceptions for Starship: a thermal-protection-system failure during high heating, a flap-system failure under high dynamic pressure and a Raptor-engine-system failure during the landing burn. These were not blanket permission to ignore safety. Under specified conditions, and provided there was no serious injury, unrelated property damage or debris outside designated hazard areas, a listed test failure would not automatically require a separate mishap investigation.
The FAA also allowed mission planning for either a controlled or uncontrolled Starship entry, with SpaceX required to communicate its choice before launch if it selected an uncontrolled entry. That framework illustrates the trade-off in an iterative test program: accepting bounded hardware loss can accelerate learning, but public safety, environmental effects, debris control and investigation requirements still govern the flight.
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What happened on June 6, 2024
SpaceX’s post-flight account describes the following sequence and timings. SpaceX mission report
- Liftoff: Starship launched from Starbase at 7:50 a.m. Central Time.
- Ascent and hot staging: Super Heavy completed its full-duration ascent burn. Starship ignited its six engines while the booster shut down all but three engines before separation.
- Booster return: Super Heavy flipped, performed its boostback burn and jettisoned the hot-stage adapter.
- Booster splashdown: The booster completed a landing burn and made a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico about 7 minutes 24 seconds after liftoff.
- Starship reentry: The spacecraft passed through peak heating. Public video showed visible thermal-protection damage, but the vehicle continued flying.
- Starship landing burn: Starship ignited three center Raptor engines and performed the landing-burn sequence, a first for the suborbital Starship campaign.
- Starship splashdown: The spacecraft made a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean approximately one hour and six minutes after launch.
How successful was the mission?
By its declared primary objectives, Flight 4 was a major engineering success. The integrated vehicle launched, hot staging worked, Super Heavy completed a controlled return sequence and landing burn, Starship survived peak reentry heating well enough to continue to a landing burn, and both stages reached their intended water-landing areas.
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That result does not mean the system was operational. Neither stage was recovered, neither was turned around for another flight, and no tower catch was attempted. Flight 4 also did not demonstrate stable orbital insertion, long-duration orbital operations, in-space propellant transfer, a lunar landing, crew systems or commercial reliability.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the result meant for Artemis
NASA’s Artemis III concept calls for SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System to carry astronauts from lunar orbit to the Moon’s surface and back. NASA requires uncrewed demonstrations and satisfaction of crew-safety requirements before a crewed landing. NASA’s Artemis III overview
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Artemis IV planning assigns the lander additional tasks, including carrying more mass and supporting docking with the Gateway lunar station for crew transfer. NASA’s Artemis IV overview Flight 4 tested foundational Earth-return capabilities that such missions depend on, but it did not test lunar descent, cryogenic propellant transfer between vehicles in orbit, life support, Gateway docking, tanker and depot operations or crew procedures. NASA describes those broader Human Landing Systems activities as continuing development work. NASA Human Landing Systems reference
What Flight 4 proved—and what it did not
| Demonstrated | Not demonstrated |
|---|---|
| Integrated launch and hot staging | Recovery of either stage |
| Super Heavy flip, boostback, landing burn and soft splashdown | Launch-tower catch or routine reuse |
| Starship survival through peak reentry heating | Fully validated thermal-protection performance |
| Starship controlled landing burn and soft splashdown | Orbital refueling or long-duration orbital operations |
| Measurable progress toward a reusable architecture | Lunar landing, crew certification or commercial readiness |
How to describe the mission accurately
- Call it a suborbital integrated flight test, not a conventional orbital insertion mission.
- Use soft splashdown or controlled water landing; neither vehicle landed on a pad or was recovered.
- Say it was successful against its primary test objectives, rather than implying operational readiness.
- Describe Starship as designed for reusability, while noting that Flight 4 did not demonstrate recovered hardware or turnaround.
- Treat Artemis schedules as plans subject to change; one successful Earth test cannot guarantee a lunar mission date.
What remained after the splashdowns
The next barriers were not simply another launch. SpaceX still needed to demonstrate repeatable recovery and reuse, protect the vehicle through reentry without unacceptable damage, perform orbital cryogenic propellant transfers, qualify the lunar-lander configuration, integrate crew systems and establish the reliability and launch cadence required for NASA missions. Flight 4 narrowed those engineering uncertainties, but it did not remove them.
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