Up early this morning to watch the spectacular fourth integrated flight test of SpaceX’s Superheavy Starship, the largest rocket ever built. Each IFT has greatly improved on the previous one, and the fourth was no exception. For the first time, both the booster and the ship softly splashed down in the ocean!
Especially impressive was watching live onboard views from the ship as it reentered the atmosphere from orbital speed. Adiabatic heating (not friction) ionized the surrounding air. The resulting plasma sheath would have caused a customary communication blackout, but starship’s large size and SpaceX’s low-Earth-orbit Starlink satellite internet constellation (operating “up” instead of “down”) enabled nearly continuous live video of the descent.
One camera was pointed toward a forward control flap, which did suffer some heating damage, but continued to function, controlling the descent attitude and enabling the final flip-and-burn deceleration maneuver. Forward flaps on near-future versions of starship may be moved leeward to improve reliability and ease manufacturing.
Thanks, Mark! I enjoy reading your posts as well.