Flight report · March 14, 2024
Flight 3: Into space, through coast, and into reentry data
March 14, 2024 pushed past separation into boostback, a first booster landing-burn attempt, ship coast objectives, and the program’s first serious reentry look before the ship was lost on the way home.
Starship / Super Heavy · Orbital Launch Pad 1 · Flight 3 of 14
Outcome
Space + reentry attempt / both lost
- Ship
- Ship 28Failure
- Lost · Lost on flight
- Booster
- Booster 10Failure
- Lost · Lost on flight
Key figures
- Liftoff
- 8:25 a.m. CT · Mar 14
- Pad
- Orbital Launch Pad 1
- Booster first
- Landing-burn attempt
- Ship focus
- Coast + reentry
01 / 03
The flight
What happened
Flight 3 lifted off at 8:25 a.m. CT on March 14, 2024. Another 33-engine ascent and hot-staging put Ship 28 on a space trajectory while Booster 10 turned around for the Gulf.
The flight stretched into new regimes: a first Super Heavy landing-burn attempt, ship coast demonstrations, and atmospheric entry before the ship was lost on return.
02 / 03
Booster return attempt
After separation, Booster 10 completed its flip and boostback toward a Gulf splashdown zone.
Several engines lit for the first landing burn before a RUD ended the booster flight around 462 meters altitude, just under seven minutes after liftoff.
03 / 03
Ship coast and reentry
Ship 28 gathered coast and early reentry data that earlier flights never reached. The timeline included payload-bay and propellant-transfer related demos.
The vehicle did not survive the return, but the telemetry shaped heat-shield and attitude-control work that paid off on Flight 4.