Incredible Views Of SpaceX Starship Reentering Earth's Atmosphere

Space.com

Watch plasma build up around SpaceX Starship during its atmospheric re-entry.  Credit: SpaceX

Transcript

00:30these great visuals.

00:31Now, don't be surprised if we manage

00:33to get some signal hiccups through.

00:35We're still learning about what that wake

00:37will actually look like in practice

00:38and whether we're able to get

00:40that live continuous high-speed data during re-entry.

00:47Yeah, that's right.

00:48And one of the really primary reasons

00:50we wanna use Starlink is to just gather

00:53as much data as possible.

00:54It's been said the data is the payload

00:57on one of these flights,

01:00we're putting this flight hardware

01:02in a real flight environment,

01:03trying to learn about it as much as possible.

01:06Re-entry is gonna be a really critical phase of flight.

01:09We really wanna know how the ship's gonna perform,

01:12especially that heat shield

01:14as we're going through the hypersonic re-entry.

01:16So if something were to go wrong during this re-entry,

01:20we want as many paths as possible

01:21to collect that information, that data,

01:24just to, again, just continually feed back

01:27into the Starship program

01:29to make each flight more reliable, more successful.

01:32Acquisition signal, Mauritius.

01:42Now, if Starship manages to make it

01:44all the way through re-entry,

01:46we'll collect valuable data on Starship

01:48flying through the Earth's atmosphere at hypersonic speeds,

01:51meaning at this point,

01:54we'll be more than five times the speed of sound.

01:58Now, we're watching these live views,

02:02HD views by the looks of it, thanks to Starlink.

02:05You can see that the flaps there on the ship

02:08might be actuating

02:14certainly some incredible visions

02:18of planet Earth behind Starship.

02:21Now, we've already validated Starship's ability to fly

02:25and land at subsonic speeds.

02:28You might recall those suborbital flights

02:30from a few years ago,

02:31and we can see those flaps there.

02:36So getting data on aspects like heating and control

02:39while traveling way faster than we did before

02:42is going to be critical to eventually bringing Starships

02:45back from space for rapid reuse.

02:47So I mentioned those flaps.

02:48That's one of the things that enables Starship

02:52to help control itself and survive the heat of re-entry,

02:56which, like we said before,

02:57we're expecting that re-entry to occur

02:59around T plus 49 minutes.

03:01So we're getting pretty close here.

03:03And what you're seeing here,

03:04it looks like the vehicle is sort of moving back and forth.

03:07Part of what you're also seeing is one of the cameras,

03:10this onboard view that we have, is on the end of a flap.

03:13Starship has front flaps and rear flaps in the vehicle.

03:17So we've got four of those,

03:19and oh man, we can see the heating on those flaps

03:22as we're starting to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.

03:24This is where the Earth's atmosphere

03:26is doing the work to slow us down.

03:30Now, like we said, this plasma field is, wow, what a view.

03:34We hope to maintain these views throughout.

03:37Starship is so big that we're hoping

03:40that the plasma field doesn't entirely blanket

03:43the entire vehicle.

03:44Right now, it is not.

03:45The Starlinks are still...

03:46Views brought to you by Starlinks.

03:48Yeah, the Starlinks are still communicating

03:50and still capturing the data

03:52and the video that we see here.

03:54I mean, Shiva, this is just absolutely incredible views.

03:57We've never seen anything like this before.

03:59This is the biggest flying object ever in space.

04:02Absolutely, Kate, and it's important to note

04:05with the ascent burn that we did

04:08was to get us to orbital velocities,

04:10even though we were on a nearly orbital trajectory.

04:13So the heating and the loads

04:15that Starship is going through right now

04:17are what it would be getting

04:19if it were recovering from an orbital mission.

04:22And just the fact that we have views through entry,

04:24this is incredible.

04:25Yeah, again, this is the furthest and fastest

04:29that Starship has ever flown.

04:31And you can definitely tell by the crowd here in Hawthorne.

04:39The heat shield tiles doing their work.

04:41We talked about it earlier, up to 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit,

04:46that those heat shield tiles are dissipating

04:49as we are reentering.

04:51Yeah, now this was one of the critical,

04:53or rather the key mission objectives

04:56that we were hoping to hit today.

04:58We have never, like I said before,

05:00this is the fastest and furthest Starship has ever flown.

05:03So this is the first time

05:04that we're getting to collect this reentry data

05:06and understand how these 18,000 hexagonal heat shield tiles

05:11are working together to protect the belly of Starship

05:14as it reenters the Earth's atmosphere.

05:17Once again, the atmosphere is doing us a big favor here.

05:21About 80 kilometers altitude.

05:24The atmosphere is actually doing us a huge favor here

05:26by acting as a braking system for Starship

05:29as it reenters the atmosphere.

05:31And that's part of the reason

05:32why the flaps are so important.

05:34We're using the body of Starship

05:37and the drag from the atmosphere

05:39to slow us down from orbital speed.

05:41But you want the vehicle to remain stable.

05:43You want those heat shield tiles pointed down

05:47so they can absorb the heat of the Earth's atmosphere.

05:51And so that's the purpose that they are serving

05:53during the hypersonic phase

05:55and then again during the subsonic phase.

05:57Absolutely.

05:58So like we said, these views are being provided

06:01by a couple of Starlink terminals

06:03that are positioned on Starship itself.

06:07As that plasma builds,

06:08we're hoping that we can bring these views back to you.

06:11But you can see the telemetry there

06:13on the right-hand side of your screen.

06:15If you watch closely, you can see the speed decelerating.

06:18Again, that's the friction of the atmosphere

06:21resulting in this plasma field,

06:23or excuse me, the blanket,

06:25that is potentially blocking

06:27the Starlink terminals right now.

06:29So we'll bring those views back to you if we get them.

06:31But right now, for those of you that have recently joined,

06:34Starship is currently reentering Earth's atmosphere.

06:38This is super exciting

06:39because it's the furthest and fastest

06:41that Starship has ever flown.

06:43It's just absolutely incredible.

06:45Major test milestone,

06:46something we wanted to accomplish on flight two,

06:48getting to it today.

06:49So just awesome.

06:52Now we actually have some heat shields here.

06:54So these are what's doing all the work

06:57on Starship right now.

06:59There are 18,000 hexagonal heat shields like these.

07:03So this one that I have is flat,

07:06like this is what would be positioned

07:07on the flaps of Starship,

07:09whereas Shiva has something a little different.

07:11Yeah, the one I have would be on the curved surfaces

07:15of Starship.

07:16I'll just put it in frame here.

07:17So we've got these attached

07:18at various points around the vehicle.

07:20Like you said, Kate, 18,000 of these tiles around,

07:23and they're doing the work to make sure

07:25that the structure of the vehicle

07:27doesn't carry all that thermal load

07:29so we can recover the vehicles eventually

07:31and get to rapid reuse on them.

07:33They're really lightweight.

07:35They sound a little different

07:37than I would have expected them to,

07:38but they are ceramic.

07:40And these are what's helping Starship survive

07:44through this period of entry.

07:47We're not sure how far we're gonna make it.

07:49Again, this is the furthest that we've gotten

07:51in our test flight,

07:52but the further we fly,

07:54the more data that we can get,

07:55and that's ultimately the measure of success here,

07:58which, I mean, I think today has been a huge success

08:01given where we've gone

08:03and how much further we've gotten

08:05with both the booster and Starship.

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