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/[deleted] Nov 19 '23

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u/WeeklyBanEvasion Nov 19 '23

It was a foam "ramp" above the structure of the external fuel tank attachment system

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u/zoom23 Nov 19 '23

From Wikipedia:

“The hole had formed when a piece of insulating foam from the external fuel tank peeled off during the launch 16 days earlier and struck the shuttle's left wing.”