On the way to orbit, SpaceX is changing everything on Starship for the orbital flight!
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Sometimes it is difficult to show objectively the rate at which Elon Musk SpaceX makes progress. The advancements we’re seeing at the company’s Starbase site in South Texas are unprecedented.
Like, seriously unprecedented!
Especially, on the way to orbit, the company is now making the final changes on Starship for the first orbital flight.
What are those changes?
Why did Musk do it?
Let’s find out in today’s episode of Alpha Tech channel:
First of all, let’s begin with the Thermal Protection System (TPS).
While SpaceX’s fleet of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets are partially reusable, Musk’s goal is to make Starship fully reusable — a rocket that is more akin to a commercial airplane. One important piece of making Starship fully reusable is improving its durability to survive the intense process of reentering the Earth’s atmosphere.
Small hexagonal heat shield tiles are SpaceX’s answer to that problem, with the previously shiny Starship 24 rocket now covered in thousands of tiles. The ship is covered entirely with heat tiles. Trailing edges would be needed on the parts of the hull next to the flaps as plasma would spill over the flaps along the hull. The heat shield goes around the nose, similar to what was present on a Space Shuttle.
But as you know, after some tests, many tiles fell so SpaceX is trying to fix this and fill gaps in Ship 24’s heat shield.
Previously, SpaceX also moved Raptor heat shield components and a missing cover for one of Ship 24’s four flaps to the pad since the incident.
Most of that work can be classified as ‘finishing touches’ and none of it would be prioritized if Ship 24 was not in decent shape.
On the way to orbit, SpaceX is changing everything on Starship for the orbital flight!
