After 3 failures:

“Starship” to take off on its fourth test flight today

(Bild: YouTuebe/SpaceX (Screenshot))

The largest rocket system ever built in the history of space travel completed its fourth test flight on Thursday afternoon. The "Starship" from Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX lifted off from the spaceport in the US state of Texas at 2.50 p.m. CEST and landed in the ocean after just over an hour.

After the separation of the booster and upper rocket stage, the former crashed into the Gulf of Mexico in a controlled manner and as planned. The upper rocket stage made it into space, where it flew for around half an hour.

On its return to Earth, parts of the spacecraft broke off at an altitude of 50 kilometers due to the enormous frictional heat, and one of the cameras was also damaged. Shortly above the Indian Ocean, the "Starship" turned, briefly activated its engines again and then - after a total flight of 66 minutes - fell into the water.

(Bild: YouTuebe/SpaceX (Screenshot))

Explodes during first two test flights
In April last year, the entire missile system exploded after just a few minutes during an initial test. During a second test in November, the two rocket stages separated and the upper stage continued to fly for a while, but both exploded shortly afterwards.

During the third test flight in March, the "Starship" reached space for the first time, but was also unable to complete the flight as hoped. The rocket system is designed so that the spacecraft and launch vehicle can be reused after returning to Earth.

The "Starship" consists of the approximately 70-meter-long "Super Heavy" booster and the approximately 50-meter-long upper stage, also called "Starship". It is around 120 meters long in total and should be able to transport well over 100 tons of cargo in the future.

NASA wants to use the "Starship" to take astronauts to the moon, while SpaceX hopes to one day reach Mars.