20241776 Club
Both stages of Starship come down under power; SpaceX lands its full stack for the first time
Super Heavy splashes into the Gulf within half a centimeter of its mark; Ship 29 survives reentry with tiles missing and touches down six kilometers off target in the Indian Ocean.
Three months after Flight Test 3 ended with both stages destroyed on reentry, SpaceX had rebuilt, retested, and modified nearly every system on the vehicle. On June 6, 2024, Ship 29 and Super Heavy Booster 11 lifted off from Starbase in Texas — and this time, both stages executed controlled powered landings over the ocean. Super Heavy splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico with what SpaceX engineer Bill Gerstenmaier called "half a centimeter accuracy." Ship 29 survived peak heating despite intentionally missing heat shield tiles, maintained attitude control through visible structural damage, and came down in the Indian Ocean roughly six kilometers from its target…
