Starship's Seventh Flight Test

44 points by grecy 5 months ago | 14 comments
  • krunck 5 months ago
    I'm curious to see how the Raptors fare. In previous flights the outer engine bells show major deformation from the heat and forces they experience during re-entry.

    Also: This link was submitted 12 days ago and there is no way to re-post it. So this major event happening very soon just gets driven down to the bottom of the lists.

    • allenrb 5 months ago
      It’s interesting that they’re doing so many tile tests. Clearly some combination of not being satisfied with what they’ve got, and wanting to find something even better. This is the kind of experimentation that’s been missing from spaceflight for way too long.
      • jauntywundrkind 5 months ago
        Unsurprising to me. Instead of ablative self-destructing tiles, they are trying to make survivable heat plates. This is such an extreme job, has to endure so much the brunt of this crazy job. Experimentation is required to see what you've really got, as well as assess what else might be possible.
        • s1artibartfast 5 months ago
          Exactly. The current tiles will not work and have the potential to kill reusability for the upper stage.
        • 5 months ago
        • fastball 5 months ago
          Interesting that the catch-abort on the last flight was caused by a damaged sensor on the tower. Just shows the complexities over trying to launch and immediately catch a rocket from the same structure.
          • grecy 5 months ago
            Really cool they’re using starlink mass simulators this time and will deploy them.
            • pplante 5 months ago
              I was surprised to read they don't expect atmospheric burnup and are targeting a splash down in the Indian Ocean. I really hope someone didn't mess up some mundane detail in their calculations.
              • ricardobeat 5 months ago
                That may be an oversight in the release, how would the mock satellites survive re-entry without heat shields?
                • skissane 5 months ago
                  I suspect they actually do expect them to burn-up on re-entry... but by telling the FAA they may splashdown, it absolves them of any problems if for whatever reason they fail to fully do so. And then the public communication has to match what they told the FAA.
                  • jjk166 5 months ago
                    Survive as in "remain undamaged and functional"? Impossible. Survive as in "something solid makes it to the surface" is quite easy. Most satellites have debris land on Earth upon de-orbiting.
              • Always42 5 months ago
                Neat they are re using a raptor engine from the fifth booster!
                • 5 months ago