Recent news suggests that SpaceX are pivoting to hot-staging instead of the flip maneuver for getting Starship away from the booster. Looking at the Titan II hot staging it seems like it would be a violent and explosive event. How could this be mitigated? A hardened cover on top of the booster would be a significant weight penalty. Do the expected gains really outweigh the additional weight?
I feel like once they’ve proven SH can handle hot staging, they’ll eventually look into offsetting the vents on SH to redirect the exhaust preferentially in one direction to help give SH a kickstart in the flip maneuver. This in addition to SH always having a few engines lit would certainly help conserve fuel even if it’s just a tiny bit.