Starship Flight 6 Review
Starship Flight 6 liftoff
Credit: johnkrausphotos on X
Pre Flight
All was going well before the start of the main count, we had a SpaceX X post confirming all systems and weather were looking good for launch. We saw the pad clear at 9:40am local time, followed by the tank farm starting to condition ahead of propellent load onto the vehicle.
Then at T- 1h15m, we got a SpaceX post on X verifying the GO for propellent load from the flight director.
At T-49m50s SpaceX confirmed Ship (second stage) propellent load was indeed under way. This was then visually verified by the frost line starting to form on the second stage. A few short minutes later, at T-41m15s booster fuel (CH4/liquid methane) was underway. Followed by LOX load at T-35m39s.
25 minutes into the official SpaceX broadcast, SpaceX confirmed its first official payload for starship was on this flight! A Banana!!
Banana in Starships payload bay
Credit: SpaceX
During the broadcast, SpaceX also confirmed a few things:
- There intent to send Starships to Mars as soon as 2026.
- Orbital refuelling demo in 2025
- Testing for Mars entry is underway
They also confirmed just how steep the final phase of Starships flight will be. Starship will dip its nose slightly prior to flip and burn to stress test the flaps.
At T-19m40s, SpaceX confirmed the start of Raptor chill. This is done in preparation for engine ignition and helps the turbo machinery and systems in the engine is conditioned correctly. At T-6m, Dan Hout confirmed the range is GO and they were tracking no issues ahead of launch.
We then got all propellent load completed on both vehicle at T-2m50s. Following this was the GO for launch from the flight director at T-30s. At T-10s, the flame deflector activate followed by Super Heavy ignition.
Launch!
Super Heavy successfully ignites its 33 Raptor engines and beautifully ascends off the launch pad. It then continued to power on and flew through maxQ successfully at T+1m2s. It continued to fly for about 1m30s where Super Heavy then shut down 30/33 engines in preparation for hot staging. 7s later at T+2m39s, we saw the ship ignites its 6 engines (3 sea level and 3 vacuum engines) and successfully complete the hot staging manoeuvre.
Booster descent
Super heavy then begun its flip and ignited the remaining 10 inner engines for the boostback burn. We heard the Flight Director give the GO for catch from the launch tower. However, the Booster triggered an automatic abort and diverted to the Gulf of Mexico. The boostback burn shutdown at T+3m37s leaving Super Heavy on a trajectory for splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico
At T+6m34s, Super Heavy ignited its 13 inner Raptor engines for the landing burn and successfully splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico at T+6m54s.
This concluded Super Heavy’s flight and life.
RIP Booster 13.
booster 13 explodes after a successful splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico
Credit: AJamesMcCarthy on X
Starship Ascent
After stage separation, the second stage of the Starship launch vehicle, or Ship, continued on its intended suborbital trajectory powered by its 6 Raptor engines (3 Sea Level engines and 3 Raptor Vacuum engines, or RVac). After just under 6 minutes of powered flight, the Ship, from now on referred to as “Starship,” cut off its 3 Raptor Vacuum engines first, followed shortly later by the 3 center engines at T+8m27s. The RVacs are shut down first because the Sea Level engines can gimbal (move up to 15 degrees along the X and Y axis to change the direction of the thrust, or in simpler terms… ‘steer’) and therefore insert Starship in the correct trajectory. Following the cutoff of the engines, Starship began its coast phase.
Starship Coast and Re-entry
Given the liftoff time at 4pm Local time, Starship spent its coast phase orbiting over the night time part of the Earth, but thanks to the Starlink views provided to us by the terminals on Starship and the satellites around Earth, we were able to enjoy amazing views of Starship and its first ever payload!
While the two previous Starship flights had a relatively quiet coast phase, this time a test was to occur. SpaceX attempted an in-space relight of a Raptor engine. At T+37m46s Starship successfully ignited one of its center sea level Raptor engines. This is a first for the Starship program, and it’s a very important step towards the first orbital flight, which *could* come as soon as the next flight if the data received is good enough.
After Starship coasted the Earth, and completed a Raptor re-light, it started its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, with visible plasma starting to form at around T+40m This is always a very important phase, but Starship features roughly 1300 tiles less in the heat shield on the sides (compared to all previous prototypes) to verify which areas can survive without them for future catch hardware. Which means the risk was high and survivability wasn’t guaranteed this time, so the re-entry phase was a very anxious and exciting moment.
However, Starship surpassed the point of peak heating. Another great change to this flight was the inclination of Starship during the final phase of descent, which had a higher angle of attack to purposefully stress the flaps at their limits due to the great aerodynamic forces.
At T+1h03m30s Starship transitioned into the bellyflop. Prior to the flip and burn, starship dipped its nose before igniting its 3 sea level engines. The 3 engines did successfully ignite and we had beautiful views of a beautiful splashdown!
Ship splashdown
Credit: SpaceX
Congrats to the entire SpaceX team and everyone involved!
Written by logan_sx27 and Magnum.