Author Topic: Flight 8 Heatshield testing - will it survive this? (Read 10578 times)

CraigLieb · « **on:** 01/12/2025 04:51 pm »

Ok folks the heat shield on ship 33 is being left with holes, and other changes on purpose. It is likely instrumented quite a bit to allow SpaceX to have realtime data on impending failures even if it doesn’t make it all the way home (i.e. data is the real payload). However, with the imagery we now have in public of the missing tiles, etc, do you believe this ship will make it through to flip maneuver, and perform its landing burn (answer yes even if it’s not at correct location)? Or will the heat shield fail and compromise operation before that (answer no)?

See this post for pic of new ship heat shield (and old ship)

Quote from: FutureSpaceTourist on 01/12/2025 06:35 am

https://twitter.com/yasin__shafiei/status/1877869923424219274

Quote
Ship 33 (Flight 7) TPS (left) vs. Ship 31 (Flight 6) TPS (right).
Ship 33 TPS looks so clean! 🔥

Both images by @StarshipGazer

deltaV · « **Reply #1 on:** 01/12/2025 06:07 pm »

Portions of the latest Starships have an ablative heat shield under the tiles as a backup. Do we know if the missing tiles have this ablative layer? If so there may not be much risk for loss of vehicle.

lightleviathan · « **Reply #2 on:** 01/12/2025 08:15 pm »

Quote from: deltaV on 01/12/2025 06:07 pm

Portions of the latest Starships have an ablative heat shield under the tiles as a backup. Do we know if the missing tiles have this ablative layer? If so there may not be much risk for loss of vehicle.

I don't think so, but SpaceX puts these test tiles on non-critical areas so there isn't really any risk anyway

FutureSpaceTourist · « **Reply #3 on:** 01/17/2025 08:56 am »

Technically the one 'No' vote is correct - Starship didn't get to the landing zone - but I guess really this Poll is void. We'll have to see if they set-up flight 8 Starship in a similar way.

AmigaClone · « **Reply #4 on:** 01/17/2025 11:33 am »

Quote from: FutureSpaceTourist on 01/17/2025 08:56 am

Technically the one 'No' vote is correct - Starship didn't get to the landing zone - but I guess really this Poll is void. We'll have to see if they set-up flight 8 Starship in a similar way.

I would suggest four options:

* Yes, Flight 8 Starship survives reentry.

* Yes, Flight 8 Starship survives reentry, with some damage caused by partial heat shield failure.

* No, Starship is destroyed on reentry.

* No, Starship is destroyed prior to planned reentry point.

CraigLieb · « **Reply #5 on:** 01/23/2025 10:19 pm »

I agree that the earlier in flight anomaly invalidates the intent of the poll since it was about the heat shield, not the other systems . If flight 8 has a similar setup, we can repeat the poll and I like the suggested choices.
Thoughts??

CraigLieb · « **Reply #6 on:** 02/25/2025 06:24 pm »

Well we’re back in business for flight 8… so I changed the title…
SpaceX said in a tweet
“ A significant number of tiles have been removed from Starship to stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle”

No need to re-open the poll. Let’s see how it turns out.
However, If you didn’t vote originally or want to change your mind, feel free to post your thoughts