SpaceX's Starship: Major Heat Shield Upgrade Unveiled!

Ship 26 Static fired! But what was the test actually about? Starbase Survived another launch! When will it be ready for another flight? Starship is getting a massive Heat Shield update! And it's ablative?

#SpaceX #starship #elonmusk #starbase

Editing: John Young, Alex Potvin, Stefanie Schlang
Photography: John Cargile, John Winkopp & Stefanie Schlang
3D Animation: Voop3D
Script & Research: Nathan, Soren, Oskar Wrobel, Felix Schlang
LIVE Production: Astro Roadie, Jonahan Heuer
Host: Felix Schlang
Production: Stefanie & Felix Schlang
Graphics & Media Processing: Jonathan Heuer, Felix Schlang

Credit:

⭐SpaceX
⭐NASA
⭐VirtualSpace_3D on X: @Lolomatico3d
⭐The Ring Watchers on X: @RingWatchers
📄Links for this Episode:

[crashtestrc]

Can ‘t wait to see Tower try to catch The booster.

[ajctrading]

"A flame diverter, what a novel concept"... 10 out of 10 Felix 😂

[baziwan]

I would say ship 26 is likely their ground tester, they are making a LOT of ground equipment modifications, they need a live rocket to plug in to everything to make sure everything is functional. They also get to use it for any new features they aren't sure of and don't want to commit a flight test to it.

[jerryodell]

The continue upgrade after each flight reminds me of what we were told many years ago, " Engineers don't make mistakes, they make revisions and upgrades ". Yea, they attempt to do the best they can the first time, but testing to failure under controlled environment has its benefits. (Personally, I believe the final production level should be somewhat higher than the current accepted levels. That's another story.)

[XinaCCPFreeTibet]

What happened to the booster and starship of flight 4 ? Were they recovered?

[GawainNYC]

A catch attempt at flight 5 will definitely be "Excitement guaranteed"!

[Bryan-Hensley]

I would love to see the booster catch, but I'd think they should practice at least once more because if the booster crashes in the wetlands around the tower, the environmentalist will be filing lawsuits left and right.

[themysticalunicorn]

The booster is nearly empty when it will arrive at the catch arms of the tower, so if they get the approach right, it could do it with ease, but we will have to wait till they try it to find that out.

[rays]

I don't think that the ablative material is in the form of hexagonal tiles. It would be a flexible ablative sheet maybe 4mm thick. Probably just cork (an excellent ablator). And it would replace that white flexible ceramic fiber blanket now installed between the backside of the tiles and the stainless steel hull.

That ablative sheet will protect the hull if a tile becomes detached. In a normal entry where there are no lost tiles, the ablator would be covered by the tiles and would not be heated by the hot reentry plasma unless the tile became detached.

That ablative sheet would likely be glued to the hull using an adhesive that works at liquid nitrogen temperature (these do exist).

[bernventer]

Why does Space X not use the tiles as heat shields on the orbital mount? Is it that the blast will blow them off?

[perpetualpunster]

Ablative Heat Tiles...a decent stop-gap until the Block 2 ships with the repositioned flap hinges.

[OlleMattsson]

Catching the booster with the tower feels like our generation's equivalent to the Apollo 11 moon landing.

[Threadripperbourbon]

This was by far one of the best updates. So much info presented. Just excellent Felix & WAI team.

[SirCharles]

Best edited SpaceX channel out there. Kudos to your production team. Love your enthusiasm and great information! Thanks!

[tuberroot]

I much appreciate the new calmer presentation. Less, over-excited shouting is good.

[bailesie]

The pause after the flame diverter comment 🤣😵

[antonriemens]

Caching the booster at flight-5, is a must! Knowing if it will work is a major milestone for the future. I hope i'ts going to happen next flight. Thumbs-up!

[SomeoneExchangeable]

My guesses:
1. Catch tower: I think it makes perfect sense for SpaceX to catch the booster and the ship on different towers for the time being - at the very least until catch works reliably enough to risk both ship, booster and launch tower all at once.
2. (Sorry, edit, sent to early): Starship 26 will be scrapped. It was a test article to test the test stand.

[casnimot]

It's an amazingly simple idea, sending Starships to Mars ASAP to ensure you can land 'em safely. And once you do, you have habitat, hardware and storage options right there. Just pick the right spot and start landing advance Starship freight drops.

[PiDsPagePrototypes]

If it's an unmanned Starship, they can send it to Mars anytime they like, so long as they have the fuel to send it and can wait long enough for it to get there. The usual transfer window is just the most efficient time and route to use. Send one out so it loops past the orbit and has Mars catch up to it when it's dropping back sun-ward and the window opens up further. Fit a NERV and the window gets wider again.