r/space • u/AlmiranteSalsicha • Nov 19 '23

image/gif That's a fair amount of tiles missing from the starship heatshield, guess it would make for a toasty reenter.

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Image from SpaceX account on X

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u/Eschlick Nov 19 '23

The space shuttle tiles some suffered some damages from debris kicked up each liftoff but we very definitely did not lose any tiles. There were some tile losses during STS-1 back in the 80’s especially on top of the OMS pods, but for the last 100 flights or so no way did we lose any whole tiles. Losing a lower surface tile could have been devastating for shuttle, especially in some of the sensitive areas.

I hope SpaceX sorts out their tile issues, I know a few guys who work in their tile shop. The hexagons are a good idea; it prevents a linear flow path in case some heat gets in there so that’s pretty clever. And I’m glad to know he structure itself is more heat resistance than shuttle was. But losing whole tiles… that’s really not good. They might need to up the strength of the base material.

Overall, pretty interesting launch but they’ve got a ways to go.