I'm curious to see how the Raptors fare. In previous flights the outer engine bells show major deformation from the heat and forces they experience during re-entry.
Also: This link was submitted 12 days ago and there is no way to re-post it. So this major event happening very soon just gets driven down to the bottom of the lists.
It’s interesting that they’re doing so many tile tests. Clearly some combination of not being satisfied with what they’ve got, and wanting to find something even better. This is the kind of experimentation that’s been missing from spaceflight for way too long.
Unsurprising to me. Instead of ablative self-destructing tiles, they are trying to make survivable heat plates. This is such an extreme job, has to endure so much the brunt of this crazy job. Experimentation is required to see what you've really got, as well as assess what else might be possible.
Interesting that the catch-abort on the last flight was caused by a damaged sensor on the tower. Just shows the complexities over trying to launch and immediately catch a rocket from the same structure.
I was surprised to read they don't expect atmospheric burnup and are targeting a splash down in the Indian Ocean. I really hope someone didn't mess up some mundane detail in their calculations.
