I'm curious to see how the Raptors fare. In previous flights the outer engine bells show major deformation from the heat and forces they experience during re-entry.
Also: This link was submitted 12 days ago and there is no way to re-post it. So this major event happening very soon just gets driven down to the bottom of the lists.
It’s interesting that they’re doing so many tile tests. Clearly some combination of not being satisfied with what they’ve got, and wanting to find something even better. This is the kind of experimentation that’s been missing from spaceflight for way too long.
Unsurprising to me. Instead of ablative self-destructing tiles, they are trying to make survivable heat plates. This is such an extreme job, has to endure so much the brunt of this crazy job. Experimentation is required to see what you've really got, as well as assess what else might be possible.
Exactly. The current tiles will not work and have the potential to kill reusability for the upper stage.
Interesting that the catch-abort on the last flight was caused by a damaged sensor on the tower. Just shows the complexities over trying to launch and immediately catch a rocket from the same structure.
Really cool they’re using starlink mass simulators this time and will deploy them.
I was surprised to read they don't expect atmospheric burnup and are targeting a splash down in the Indian Ocean. I really hope someone didn't mess up some mundane detail in their calculations.
That may be an oversight in the release, how would the mock satellites survive re-entry without heat shields?
I suspect they actually do expect them to burn-up on re-entry... but by telling the FAA they may splashdown, it absolves them of any problems if for whatever reason they fail to fully do so. And then the public communication has to match what they told the FAA.
They would normally have to do a debris analysis. I would expect them to burn up, because we'll have a real problem if Starlink satellites start surviving reentry. But it's possible that since this is a very low injection point and speeds will be lower that some parts might survive. If they do, it makes Starship survival look less impressive though...
Survive as in "remain undamaged and functional"? Impossible. Survive as in "something solid makes it to the surface" is quite easy. Most satellites have debris land on Earth upon de-orbiting.
They don't. Only very big or dense satellites will have anything reach the ground. Most burn up completely in the atmosphere.
Yes they do. Whether something burns up is primarily based on melting point. Steel and titanium components typically survive while aluminum does not. The overall size and average density of the satellite do not matter - they break up into small pieces long before they experience significant heating.
Neat they are re using a raptor engine from the fifth booster!