Starship IFT-4 launch today (June 6)

[wraper]

Test flight 4 today at ~7-20 a.m. CT (13-20 GMT) (stream supposedly starts 6-30 CT/ 12-30 GMT). Will in blend... I mean will it land? Don't try watching it on youtube unless it's a 3rd party stream with their own video. It's X exclusive and youtube will be full of crypto scam streams.  https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1OwxWYzDXjWGQ

[wraper]

Stream is live https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1OwxWYzDXjWGQ
Launch in 30 minutes, (7-50a.m. CT, 12-50 GMT)

Alternative view from Everyday Astronaut

[RoGeorge]

Nice, thanks!
Looks like it is losing a lot of mass, there are many sparks. 

[wraper]

This Starship was a fighter, soft landed in the ocean despite some extra holes.

[Psi]

If I remember correctly, Elon said that the location of the flaps needs to move back a bit and is not very optimal in the current design.
So flap damage is not all that unexpected on V1.  I think the hinge join is just too close to the hot plasma on V1.
Bring on V2 !!!

[Per Hansson]

Watched Tim Dodd's stream, what an absolutely amazing performance, would be amazing if there are some external shots of the Starship splashdown!
You could see it hovered even with the damaged view of the camera, in all I think the camera had the most amazing performance though

Also this comment on Dave's stream is so valid I wish I could upvote it more than once!

[wraper]

^I watched Thunderf00t's stream a little bit, so much disappointment after every of his cheering failure prediction failed to materialize. Now he is made fun of in the comments.

[Sal Ammoniac]

Bring on V2 !!!

Londoners probably consider that to be in poor taste. 

[coppice]

Bring on V2 !!!

Londoners probably consider that to be in poor taste. 

The V2 was a flop. It exploded on impact, rather than proximity, and left only very localised damage. It had a shock value, because it came in supersonic, so it suddenly went bang without any warning. It was the V1 that caused serious damage, and also scared people with its loud characteristic noise as it approached. Pop, pop, pop, pop, silence, wait, bang, ah, someone else caught it.

[coppice]

^I watched Thunderf00t's stream a little bit, so much disappointment after every of his cheering failure prediction failed to materialize. Now he is made fun of in the comments.

When Thunderf00t was made, they started with the sneer, and built the rest of him around that.

[MT]

Burning of the control fin was nice and spectacular!

[coppice]

Burning of the control fin was nice and spectacular!

It looks like they made a really good job of the control software. They were lucky the plasma didn't cut through anything vital on the fins, but they were clearly badly damaged, and the control system appeared to compensate for that very well.

[wraper]

I guess it's a badge of honor 

[fourfathom]

It looks like they made a really good job of the control software. They were lucky the plasma didn't cut through anything vital on the fins, but they were clearly badly damaged, and the control system appeared to compensate for that very well.

Was more than one fin burned?  Wouldn't surprise me, it's probably a symmetrical fin placement, but I only saw the one fin burning.

Don't forget that one of the 33 booster-stage raptor engines failed to light.  I don't know if there was any specific control system adjustment, or if the system just automatically compensated for it, but it demonstrates the effective redundancy and ability to perform properly under less-than perfect conditions.

[wraper]

Flap burn was actually predicted. https://x.com/Erdayastronaut/status/1798839719964618998

[coppice]

It looks like they made a really good job of the control software. They were lucky the plasma didn't cut through anything vital on the fins, but they were clearly badly damaged, and the control system appeared to compensate for that very well.

Was more than one fin burned?  Wouldn't surprise me, it's probably a symmetrical fin placement, but I only saw the one fin burning.

Don't forget that one of the 33 booster-stage raptor engines failed to light.  I don't know if there was any specific control system adjustment, or if the system just automatically compensated for it, but it demonstrates the effective redundancy and ability to perform properly under less-than perfect conditions.

One booster engine failed going up, and one failed in the final burn before landing. They have more engines than necessary for redundancy, so this is something the control system is definitely built to allow for. You can't build a ship to be launched hundreds of times a year carrying people without providing for operation with some engine outages.

[CatalinaWOW]

Another kudo for the control software.  The flap lost maybe 20% of its area, and everything worked.  This flight also validated the choice of stainless steel.  Aluminum would never have made it through this.

[Per Hansson]

Flap burn was actually predicted. https://x.com/Erdayastronaut/status/1798839719964618998

Yes it was mentioned by Tim in the stream but he didn't want to elaborate too much about his upcoming video (it needs ITAR compliance authorization before being published obviously) so thank you for this link because I would have missed it!

[Psi]

Flap burn was actually predicted. https://x.com/Erdayastronaut/status/1798839719964618998

Yeah, even before that I remember hearing about how hard it is to thermally shield a movable joint like the flaps.
The reentry gas wants to find any crack and cut it open like a plasma cutter.

The plan to move the hinge part upwards makes a lot of sense.  Get the hinge part out of the plasma stream.  The flaps themselves have to extend out into it but the hinge doesnt.

[tom66]

I wonder if the flaps will ultimately end up as consumable parts - give them enough area to survive entry but recycle and replace them for each flight?  Probably expensive, but may end up being cheaper than making them out of solid titanium or something like that.

[AVGresponding]

^I watched Thunderf00t's stream a little bit, so much disappointment after every of his cheering failure prediction failed to materialize. Now he is made fun of in the comments.

When Thunderf00t was made, they started with the sneer, and built the rest of him around that.

Never seen him sneer. Seen him be pompous and condescending yes, but not sneering.

Hard to see how any of this Starship nonsense can be seen as a success, given what was promised. Or don't those promises matter?

[coppice]

I wonder if the flaps will ultimately end up as consumable parts - give them enough area to survive entry but recycle and replace them for each flight?  Probably expensive, but may end up being cheaper than making them out of solid titanium or something like that.

Since the current design seemed to pass through peak heating and peak aerodynamic pressure (judging by the verbal announcements during the descent) before it started to obviously degrade I imagine they will be looking for some kind of deflection arrangement, to minimise the plasma passingthrough the gap before solutions that makes more things expendable.

[Psi]

I don't think Thunderf00t actually believes what he says about SpaceX, he's just made himself a fanbase that can be milked like a cash cow and now he has to play the role his audience expects in order to get paid.
His audience wants drama and rants about why things, that everyone else likes, are actually fake, fraud or wrong.
It's one of the worst parts of the human brain, how it can be drawn to seek balance. When you see something that other people like and want to hate it because by doing so you feel it restores balance and that feels good.

[coppice]

Hard to see how any of this Starship nonsense can be seen as a success, given what was promised. Or don't those promises matter?[/color][/font][/b]

We see a lot of what is going on in the development process for Starship, in a way that is rare. If you've ever been involved from the inside on a big system development you'll realise they all look pretty ugly, until things start to come together. Even things which are hard to hide, like test flights of a new aircraft design, aren't usually very open at all. A new Boeing or Airbus flying for the first time generally looks very much like the final product that ships. If you know anything about the development program from the inside you'll know the first flight is typically with a plane that's so heavy it couldn't carry many passengers, and radical weight reduction work happens during the test phase to get the aircraft close to the load carrying performance that was promised.

[MT]

Flap burn was actually predicted. https://x.com/Erdayastronaut/status/1798839719964618998

It's obvious by design, but bad engineering if you need to have parts of a space tincan to burn up during reentry.
Else you could just as well cut out that surface area during manufacturing.
Wasnt Musks whole rocket ideas reusability of tincans and not opsidaisy right to repair. (besides the real agenda of being one of many vehicles to transfer taxpayers wealth into private corporate hands)
Sure as hell Musk forgot to tell everyone in the control room/hired audience his predictions when they become aware of the melting and in horror expressed the sight at 14:40 in the fin burn video.