The fourth Starship launch with the Super Heavy launcher was successful, and the launcher managed to re-enter the spacecraft, slowing to a controlled, vertical stop, just above the water’s surface, as planned, before plunging into the Atlantic Ocean. The following hour, the Starship spacecraft glided back into the atmosphere, live. Also live, the left flap was seen being worn away by the extremely hot plasma. But it reached the surface of the Atlantic Ocean in a controlled manner and at almost zero speed. It sustained significant damage from the plasma created during the glide phase (valuable engineering data), but it completed the mission and arrived almost stationary at splashdown, even attempting the maneuver.
