Starship Flight 8 DISCUSSION : Starbase TX : 6 March 2025 (23:30 UTC)

[catdlr]

There's a lot of it. The tiles are breaking up and on certain beaches you'll find hundreds of smaller fragments washed up with the other general beach debris.
I don't think it's feasible for these fragments to be located and collected. I was finding them on tiny uninhabited islands, of which there are several dozen in this area.
It wouldn't be at all obvious what they are unless you were a keen tank watcher.

But I guess that selling them as souvenirs on eBay is not a good idea 😂

To those individuals who discover such items washing ashore:

Please take photographs and geo-tag them, or make a note of your precise location(s).
It is advisable to contact SpaceX; they will provide an email address to which you can send your photographs and location details if necessary.

Your responsibility is to report the findings. Refrain from picking up the items and avoid attempting to assist a situation for which you bear no responsibility.  It is ultimately SpaceX's duty to address the situation as deemed appropriate.  By contacting them and supplying the relevant information regarding locations and photographs, you will have fulfilled your obligation, and your conscience will be clear. Please do not revisit the scene or attempt to sell the items on platforms such as E-Bay.

I hope that helps.

[meekGee]

There's a lot of it. The tiles are breaking up and on certain beaches you'll find hundreds of smaller fragments washed up with the other general beach debris.
I don't think it's feasible for these fragments to be located and collected. I was finding them on tiny uninhabited islands, of which there are several dozen in this area.
It wouldn't be at all obvious what they are unless you were a keen tank watcher.

But I guess that selling them as souvenirs on eBay is not a good idea

No but if you want to build a high temperature furnace, a space kiln, you've got the beginning of a project...

[InterestedEngineer]

A much older rule - finders keepers losers weepers.

Nobody including SpaceX is expecting all 10,000 tiles to be returned.

[Kaputnik]

A much older rule - finders keepers losers weepers.

Nobody including SpaceX is expecting all 10,000 tiles to be returned.

They're in a lot more than 10,000 pieces now!
I haven't seen many intact tiles. Interestingly, the only intact tiles I have found were not hexagonal. I've also noticed a lot of variation in thickness. From this very unscientific observation, it seems that they have not come close to achieving the goal of having most of the tiles identical.
Of course, it could be that the 'standard' tile is thin, large, and fragile, and so the pieces that I am finding are the unusual, chunkier ones.

[InterestedEngineer]

A much older rule - finders keepers losers weepers.

Nobody including SpaceX is expecting all 10,000 tiles to be returned.

They're in a lot more than 10,000 pieces now!
I haven't seen many intact tiles. Interestingly, the only intact tiles I have found were not hexagonal. I've also noticed a lot of variation in thickness. From this very unscientific observation, it seems that they have not come close to achieving the goal of having most of the tiles identical.
Of course, it could be that the 'standard' tile is thin, large, and fragile, and so the pieces that I am finding are the unusual, chunkier ones.

you mind sticking a water-soaked tile into the freezer and seeing what happens?

Many of us on the heat shield thread have been wondering about such an experiment.

[Masshole]

They're in a lot more than 10,000 pieces now!
I haven't seen many intact tiles. Interestingly, the only intact tiles I have found were not hexagonal. I've also noticed a lot of variation in thickness. From this very unscientific observation, it seems that they have not come close to achieving the goal of having most of the tiles identical.
Of course, it could be that the 'standard' tile is thin, large, and fragile, and so the pieces that I am finding are the unusual, chunkier ones.

I have a flight 7 tile from someone on Long Bay beach, Providenciales Turks and Caicos....
Lots of flight 7 tiles ended up on eBay.

Flight 8 by contrast has shown almost no tiles on eBay...

[meekGee]

They're in a lot more than 10,000 pieces now!
I haven't seen many intact tiles. Interestingly, the only intact tiles I have found were not hexagonal. I've also noticed a lot of variation in thickness. From this very unscientific observation, it seems that they have not come close to achieving the goal of having most of the tiles identical.
Of course, it could be that the 'standard' tile is thin, large, and fragile, and so the pieces that I am finding are the unusual, chunkier ones.

I have a flight 7 tile from someone on Long Bay beach, Providenciales Turks and Caicos....
Lots of flight 7 tiles ended up on eBay.

Flight 8 by contrast has shown almost no tiles on eBay...

I betcha if you call SpaceX, they're required to take it from you because of ITAR, and probably obligated to set up a hotline too.

Otherwise, I don't think they'd be bothered, so ask them no questions and they'll tell you no lies.

[Twark_Main]

From this very unscientific observation, it seems that they have not come close to achieving the goal of having most of the tiles identical.

We don't have to resort to guesswork, do we?  We can count the tiles.   

I haven't seen many intact tiles. Interestingly, the only intact tiles I have found were not hexagonal. I've also noticed a lot of variation in thickness.

...it could be that the 'standard' tile is thin, large, and fragile, and so the pieces that I am finding are the unusual, chunkier ones.

Could also be related to ballistic coefficient.  The lower-BC debris might have preferentially landed in a place where the current/wind/waves took it away from the islands.

[dondar]

small reminder:
from https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-8

relevant quote:
" If you believe you have identified a piece of debris, please contact your local authorities or the SpaceX Debris Hotline at 1-866-623-0234 or at [email protected]. "

the phone number changes eventually (because US phone system sucks), the email remains being the same since early 201x.

[shm6666]

One question that I got that I have not seen answer is. Given the leak we know flight 8 did have and assume that flight 8 would have reached MECO. Would there have been enough fuel left to 1 do the burn in orbit, 2 do the landing burn?

What I’m basically asking, given the leak, was flight 8 LOM regardless?

[Vettedrmr]

Don't know about the engine relight, but the landing burn uses the header tanks, not the mains.

[rsnellenberger]

Don't know about the engine relight, but the landing burn uses the header tanks, not the mains.

Also, the new plumbing that has the harmonic issue only connects to the RVacs, which aren't used after orbital insertion.

[Kaputnik]

A much older rule - finders keepers losers weepers.

Nobody including SpaceX is expecting all 10,000 tiles to be returned.

They're in a lot more than 10,000 pieces now!
I haven't seen many intact tiles. Interestingly, the only intact tiles I have found were not hexagonal. I've also noticed a lot of variation in thickness. From this very unscientific observation, it seems that they have not come close to achieving the goal of having most of the tiles identical.
Of course, it could be that the 'standard' tile is thin, large, and fragile, and so the pieces that I am finding are the unusual, chunkier ones.

you mind sticking a water-soaked tile into the freezer and seeing what happens?

Many of us on the heat shield thread have been wondering about such an experiment.

I could try but I have very limited freezer capacity at the moment, as I'm travelling on my sailing boat. The freezer only gets to about -10⁰C, and it's currently filled with a couple of large mahi mahi that I caught along the way... yup it's a tough life!

I expect that to do a satisfactory freezing test I'd need access to a more powerful deep freeze which would achieve a lower temperature faster than my puny 12v ice box.

[JaimeZX]

Did you eat the fish yet?

[Twark_Main]

Did you eat the fish yet?

NSF coverage slacking off big time.  Where's the live frozen fish cam??   



Cue "frozen fish aren't live."


Cue "if it's frozen fix the livestream." 

[Eka]

you mind sticking a water-soaked tile into the freezer and seeing what happens?

Many of us on the heat shield thread have been wondering about such an experiment.

I could try but I have very limited freezer capacity at the moment, as I'm travelling on my sailing boat. The freezer only gets to about -10⁰C, and it's currently filled with a couple of large mahi mahi that I caught along the way... yup it's a tough life!

I expect that to do a satisfactory freezing test I'd need access to a more powerful deep freeze which would achieve a lower temperature faster than my puny 12v ice box.

Envious... I grew up on a bay close to the ocean. Also did lots of sailing back then. Including a couple blue water cruises. At the end of HS I had an offer to sail around the world, but I was deep into 3 DoD contracts.

Your freezer should be good enough. All you need to do is get the outside to freeze first. Then the inside will freeze later and bust the tile. All the freeze expansion happens just under 0C. Getting the tile thoroughly soaked through is more important. Any bubbles allows for water expansion when it freezes. I expect local areas may shatter into bits when it freezes because they lack routes for the water to escape as it freezes.

[woods170]

Don't know about the engine relight, but the landing burn uses the header tanks, not the mains.

Also, the new plumbing that has the harmonic issue only connects to the RVacs, which aren't used after orbital insertion.

Emphasis mine.

That little statement of fact only applies to current experimental Starship. The Starship vehicles that are intended to eventually go to the Moon and Mars will very much use RVac after orbital insertion. In fact, RVacs were developed specifically for in-space use, where the sea-level Raptors are quite inefficient.

[woods170]

Did you eat the fish yet?

NSF coverage slacking off big time.  Where's the live frozen fish cam??   



Cue "frozen fish aren't live."


Cue "if it's frozen fix the livestream." 

(Voice of Majel Barrett-Roddenberry): "Warning! Warning! Unintended Party Thread initiation detected!


But seriously people... don't take this OT humour too far. Otherwise we risk Lar et al. stepping in wielding an axe to cut the recent OT posts.

[JaimeZX]

The internet is impatient for pics of frozen tiles alongside a grilled fillet, a salad, and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc!

[Slarty1080]

If someone was litter picking on a beach and came across a tile and didn't know what it was (after all not everyone is a space geek) and they bagged it as litter would that be an issue?