SpaceX still repairing heat tiles on their starship rocket
Posted by urnlfn on October 7, 2022, 11:15 am
They haven't launched anything in over a year. They keep doing tests of one sort or another. And they keep having to replace heat tiles that are falling off (and it isn't even launching). I would have expected this problem to be solved by now. There should be no heat tiles falling off at all. It makes me think that this rocket will burn up in the atmosphere and not survive re-entry, that it will be an expendable rocket. Furthermore, whatever bump or jolt or vibration is causing the heat tiles to fall off, the fact that they haven't been able to prevent it means that it must be so severe that it could damage whatever payload the rocket carries. Maybe SpaceX's Starship won't be suitable for launching satellites at all, even as an expendable rocket!
It was fun watching them build stuff and blow up rockets, and I expect the same when they try to land the Superheavy Booster on the tower "chopsticks". I don't know why they designed it that way. Why don't they have the Superheavy Booster splashdown in the water, and then lift it out using a crane/barge? If they must land the thing on the tower, why don't they use a tailhook/cable system like aircraft carriers use? The system they've build doesn't seem to be very forgiving. That said, I'm looking forward to seeing more big explosions! Very entertaining.
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