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SA-4 was the last flight to just test the S-I first stage of the Saturn I rocket. As with the first three launches this would be a suborbital flight and would test the structural integrity of the rocket.

The major addition to this flight was that to test the rockets ability to deal with an engine failure during the flight, one of the engine would be programmed to shutdown about 100 seconds after launch. If all went well the rocket would reroute the fuel for this engine to the other engines and have the rocket burn longer to compensate for the loss of acceleration. This was used successfully on the later "Apollo 6" and "Apollo 13" flights.

Also on this flight, the dummy second stage was outfitted with the aerodynamic design of the real second stage. This included vent ducts, fairings and dummy camera pods. The rocket also flew with antennae designed for the Block II version of the rocket.