The fourth orbital SpaceX Starship has launched. We will now see if it safely re-enter.
The booster had a good return and a soft landing burn.
It is looking far better getting through re-entry.
It nearly burned through a flap.
It still is making it through despite the flap problem.
They are still getting telemetry and decelerated.
The flap still worked to some extent.
It did the landing burn.
Hot stage jettison pic.twitter.com/J48QtQD1Ae
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 6, 2024
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Watching this, I was wondering if the flaps and their joints to the main body could be moved to the leeward side of the rocket. Doing so would place the flap joints in the wind-shadow of the rocket body, which would simplify the tiling on the windward side and protect the flap joints from excessive heating.
I think V2 has this
Media is reporting that nothing (booster or starship) will be recovered. After a soft landing with empty propellant tanks, wouldn’t they both float really well for weeks/months? This brings so many questions/concerns to mind from hazards to navigation, to proprietary tech out there for anyone to grab, to physical engineering data lost. Seems like at the least, they should be scuttled… at most, they should be brought back to SpaceX engineers and then a museum.
[ Is there a material for heat shielding tiles that could be sprayed on for rebuilding&refreshing functionality being an ablative material for transferring heat away from space vehicle reentering? ]
You can say what you like about Musk, but he is leading the Space race – at least what we the public can see. To hear genuine excitement in the crowd tells you that this stuff means something, its important! If the world put a bit more effort into this rather than trying to kill each other….sigh…
Amazing
I don´t think even SpaceX personnel believed it would be able to land after the flap basically became an skeleton… just the frame… It looked even to be kinda hanging. It was incredible.
In many ways, that was even better than had the whole flight been flawless. It handled engine out without mishap. But even more impressive, it saw a critical flap burn through, but what remained continued to function and provide flight authority through reentry and max Q. That is one tough mother.
We’ve never had that before. Our history of space flight has been of light weight and tight margins. Musk said, let’s build big, let’s build strong, let’s build powerful. This is the beginning of the next phase in space exploration.
Right.
I think we are transitioning away from specially designed, delicate hardware.
We are starting to put DC-10s into orbit.
Mass produced, sturdy but also a tad crude because of how many are being made.
Congratulations SpaceX.
Eat your heart out NASA, Blue Origin, Boeing and ULA.
This seems close enough to nominal for a rapid FAA launch license for IFT-5 late June or early July. No.5 May well try to catch the Superheavy on the tower.
It did re-entry, not quite safely though. But it seems it completed the mission milestones.
The flaps being eaten by plasma in live cam was a sight to behold, tho’.
Water landing after damaged flap during reentry is unreal.
This will revolutionize space flight, economies of scale, affordable access!