After about 130 days of testing, upgrades, and iteration, Starship just launched for the fifth time ever and it was easily the most impressive flight yet. For the first time ever we watched as the booster made its way back to the launch site for a catch attempt.
Flight 5
With just 1 minute left until launch, and the sunrise in the background, all the Raptor engines were chilled, the rocket was filled with around 10 million pounds of propellant, and it prepared to startup its engines. There was an opportunity to hold at T – 40 seconds however it wasn’t needed and the clock passed right through. With only seconds left and the water deluge system running, the engines ignited and soon after, Starship lifted off.
About 10 seconds in the vehicle cleared the launch tower and began pitching down range. Right away the graphic provided by SpaceX showed that all 33 Raptor engines were firing. Mission control also confirmed that the booster Raptor chamber was nominal. At T + 0:59 the call of Max Q came in, which is the moment of peak mechanical stress on the rocket. At this point in the flight, you could see all 33 engines still firing as the vehicle continued to gain altitude and speed.
At T + 1:49 the livestream switched to onboard cameras and showed the exhaust plume of the Super Heavy booster not long before hot staging. While all of this was happening, the tower team at mission control was very busy doing their go-no-go, determining if the manual command to send the booster back to the launch site was the right decision.
As the clock hit T + 2:34 seconds the graphic shows all but the three center engines of the booster shutting off in what SpaceX calls Most Engines Cut Off (MECO). Seconds later the upper stage ignited its engines while still attached to the booster followed soon after by the separation of the two stages. Right after the Booster’s additional 10 engines ignited bringing the total to 13 for the boostback burn.
At this point, the booster had begun its journey back to the launch site as the upper stage and its 6 engines continued to gain altitude and speed. At this point in the flight, it still wasn’t clear whether the command had been sent with the booster sending it to return to the launch site or its default location in the Gulf of Mexico.
By T + 3:41 the booster boostback burn shutdown had occurred. Seconds later they confirmed that the tower was a go for catch. In other words, by this point, they had sent the command and Super Heavy was now on a return path and catch trajectory.
Over the next minute, while the upper stage was continuing to fire its engines, the booster was flying back toward the launch site. In the stream, you can see both the booster getting larger as it gets closer in addition to the telemetry which showed it rapidly losing altitude. Just past 6 minutes you could see the booster flying through the clouds as it made its way toward the tower.
Finally, at T + 6:31 the booster ignited 13 of its Raptor engines and began rapidly slowing in preparation for the catch. Soon after it cut the 10 center engines leaving just 3 Raptors as the stage began to basically hover. As it approached the tower it made one large final adjustment before falling right between the two catch arms. Looking at the footage, right after the bottom of the booster had made its way between the arms they began to come together. Finally, with just a few meters between the catch points and the arms, the booster hovered before very slowly making contact with the arms, marking a successful catch. The engines then were shut off and Super Heavy was being held up solely by the tower.
Looking at views from the tower itself you can see the booster sat perfectly between the two arms using its main catch points right under the grid fins. Drone shots showed the booster intact and hanging in the air with only a small fire going at the bottom.
While all of that was happening, the upper stage was still firing its engines. At T + 7:58 the graphic showed the 3 Vacuum Raptor engines shutting off. Soon after at T + 8:28, they called out engine cutoff, and the other 3 upper stage Raptors also shut off. They eventually switched views back to Starship which at this point had begun its long coast phase.
Over the next 40 minutes, the upper stage continued on its journey around the world before the start of the reentry process. By around T + 47:00, Starship was heading into the reentry process as heating of the stage began. At T + 52:00 you can see a camera positioned at the nose of the ship looking down at the flap on the right as plasma begins building up around the vehicle. On the last flight, one of Starship’s flaps ended up being partly compromised by the heat which managed to strip away some of its heat shield and metal taking a sizable chunk out of the flap. This happened right around 57 minutes into that flight and continued over the next few minutes.
Around 57 minutes into Flight 5 we could see thanks to multiple different camera angles that the Ship was in good shape and holding up well to the heat. That was up until T + 58:38 when the camera switched showing each of the flaps again. Here you could see some burn-through starting on one of the flaps. Over the next minute, this would continue with a bit more heat and plasma making its way through. However, unlike the last flight, there was minimal damage before the stage had practically completed reentry and gotten through some of the peak heating phases.
At T + 1:00:38 you could see quite a few sparks and flames coming off the ship. That being said, this would all fade away over the next minute as Starship slowed down significantly and was now only about 38 km high. From here it continued to fall back toward Earth and make its way toward its landing sight. By T + 1:03:20, the upper stage was now in its belly flop position to help slow it down. Around this time mission control confirmed that the ship was still on target. At T + 1:05:10 the ship had slowed down to 352 km/h at an altitude of only 1 km.
About 12 seconds later the landing burn startup occurred with the three engines igniting. Here the telemetry data showed the Ship flipping vertical as it made its way toward the water. They then switched to a camera showing the water below as the stage slowed down. Finally, it softly splashed down in the ocean followed by what looks like the vertical stage tipping over as expected. Interestingly, there was then another camera change this time to a buoy not far from the upper stage. From this angle, we could see a large explosion as the stage began filling with water. This was followed by a fire with the head of Starship poking up out of the water.
As far as the camera angle, this is similar to what we saw when the booster splashed down in the ocean on Flight 4. That’s significant because it suggests that SpaceX was extremely accurate in the landing of the Ship with how close the prepositioned camera was. At the very end, the fire slowly went out and so did our view, marking the end of Starship Flight 5.
Everything considered, this was a massively successful test flight. Soon after SpaceX tweeted saying, “Splashdown confirmed! Congratulations to the entire SpaceX team on an exciting fifth flight test of Starship!”
On Flight 4, we watched as SpaceX managed to complete two big milestones. That included the first soft splashdown of the booster in the Gulf of Mexico and a similar splashdown of the upper stage. That being said, both weren’t perfect with the booster experiencing some engines going out and the upper stage nearly losing a flap. On this flight, SpaceX made some significant improvements with the booster managing to return to the pad for a successful catch and the ship returning in much better condition.
Before the launch, SpaceX stressed that in order for a catch to take place, thousands of distinct vehicle and pad criteria must have been met, which would require healthy systems on the booster and tower and a manual command from the mission’s Flight Director. If this command hadn’t been sent prior to the completion of the boostback burn, or if automated health checks showed unacceptable conditions with Super Heavy or the tower, the booster would have defaulted to a trajectory that takes it to a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
Obviously, this wasn’t the case. A few minutes into the flight teams had determined that everything was a go for the catch. Leading up to the flight SpaceX was quoted saying, “SpaceX engineers have spent years preparing and months testing for the booster catch attempt, with technicians pouring tens of thousands of hours into building the infrastructure to maximize our chances for success.” This definitely paid off and will have a significant impact on future Starship flights and the industry.
Conclusion
SpaceX just did what many considered impossible by catching a 70m tall booster out of mid-air. This was accompanied by a soft splashdown of the upper stage which held up much better during reentry than any previous flight.