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It's a good question. The hurdle to clear for same-day reuse will be the heat shield. SpaceX hasn't yet demonstrated that Starship can reenter the atmosphere an
by modeless 2y ago
It's a good question. The hurdle to clear for same-day reuse will be the heat shield. SpaceX hasn't yet demonstrated that Starship can reenter the atmosphere and remain fully intact. Doing it while sustaining near zero wear on the heat shield will be even harder. But I think it is not impossible, and I don't know of any other obvious blockers for same day reuse.
- YetAnotherNick 2y agoEven if they can reuse the booster, it would be huge.
- soperj 2y agoThey'll likely reuse the booster on the same day well before the starship portion. No heat shield on the booster. Some starships will likely stay in space for a long time before returning.
- thinkcontext 2y agoMusk has said they're aiming for hundreds of reuses for the booster and dozens for the ship.
- BurningFrog 2y agoIt's certainly looked fully intact when reaching ground. When they manage to do the intended landing it should be pretty unharmed, but I'm sure it will take a while before same-day reuse is attempted.
- modeless 2y agoOne of the flaps burned through again. Not as bad as the first time. The hinge area seems like the hardest challenge.
- dylan604 2y agoIs this a bit of over engineering? How much is drag reduced during liftoff by having the flaps folded?
- modeless 2y agoThe reason the flaps move is to provide attitude and speed control during reentry. Like a skydiver spreading their arms and legs.
- dylan604 2y agooh, you mean like actual flaps of pretty much any aircraft. doh! i was thinking it was like the folding of the wings for planes on an aircraft carrier. sometimes my brain, boy, i don't know
- bryanlarsen 2y agoIt was a flap hinge that burnt through, not the flap. They have a solution for block 2 which we'll likely see in test 7 -- move the flap slightly further back so that the hinge isn't in direct flow.
- WalterBright 2y agoZero wear is not necessary. The tiles can be thicker than the minimum, and be reusable until they wear down to the minimum. Like the brake pads on your car.