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And the second launch with the updated grid fins made out of titanium alloy. Elon Musk said it went well and they want to reuse them indefinitely.
by vermontdevil 9y ago
And the second launch with the updated grid fins made out of titanium alloy. Elon Musk said it went well and they want to reuse them indefinitely.
- dtparr 9y agoYour wording makes it sound like there have been two launches with the new grid fins. For clarification, I believe you meant the second of this weekend's launches was the first to use the new grid fins.
- olex 9y agoThis was the first launch of the titanium fins. The BulgariaSat booster from two days ago was an older block 3 first stage with the "original" aluminum fins. They did glow quite a bit during the very hot re-entry, visible on the last few video frames before the feed cut out: https://youtu.be/Y8mLi-rRTh8?t=1405 https://youtu.be/Y8mLi-rRTh8?t=1405
- nialv7 9y agoThat was probably not just glow. That was the shielding material actually burning.
- olex 9y agoYes, you're correct. Elon stated in a tweet earlier today that the aluminum fins had burned up their ablative coating on every flight.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- vermontdevil 9y agoI misphrased it. I meant the second launch of the weekend. Not the second launch of the fins.