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Anecdotal: I believe musk said that the charred outside was surprisingly only in need of a fresh coat of paint.
by safeharbourio 9y ago
Anecdotal: I believe musk said that the charred outside was surprisingly only in need of a fresh coat of paint.
- angstrom 9y agoWouldn't be surprised if it's similar to the coatings placed on the launch pad stabilizers. The paint is meant to char because it acts similar to a ceramic preventing damage to the underlying metal. There's a good youtube video of this on the moon launches where the tail fin hold downs char, but don't warp.
- greglindahl 9y agoThe grid fins have paint like that, which is why they catch on fire.
- dflock 9y agoThey're aluminium underneath the paint - and that also melts a bit on a high speed GTO reentry, hence the likely switch to titanium grid fins in the future.
- goatforce5 9y agoIn a funny way, i'd be happy if it got to a point where they just sent the dirty/charred rockets back up. "It's a rocket - of course it's going to get dirty!"