SpaceX Starship Flight 4 goes full stack, check visuals

SpaceX has confirmed that the Starship Flight 4 is full stack and ready for the upcoming test launch from Starbase Texas. The company has shared visuals and a short clip of stacking Starship spacecraft over the Super Heavy booster rocket using giant chopsticks.

After the flight 3 test in March, SpaceX rapidly started testing for new spacecraft and boosters. On March 26, Starship Flight 4’s spacecraft completed a static fire test with its 6 raptor engines. The next day, the company conducted a single Raptor engine ignition test.

On April 5, the Super Heavy booster for this new launch vehicle fired its 33 Raptor engine for a few seconds and achieved a go for the test flight. Since then the company has been stacking and de-stacking these two stages to verify launch preparations.

SpaceX Starship stacking over Super Heavy Booster (Image source – SpaceX)

With Starship Flight fully stacked, we now wait for a wet dress rehearsal of the integrated vehicle.

Starship 4 aimed at a more robust launch than the previous three flights. It could improve the propulsion on both stages and the stage separation process. The last flight has provided useful data to move with both stages separately to their corresponding milestones.

The spacecraft will work on the efficiency of the payload door opening and closing sequence, propellant transfer, and achieve a single Raptor in-orbit ignition.

After enduring the maximum descent velocity, both Starship and Super Heavy are targeting a virtual tower landing in the Sea. This step was previously incomplete due to malfunction in both stages. However, Flight 4 could make it happen to test a physical landing on a real landing spot with Starship 5.

FAA License

The launch vehicle is now on the vertical orbital pad and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is yet to approve Starship 4’s flight license. We expect the FAA approval might come by the end of this month or early June.