I wonder how much they’ll be able to learn through thoroughly inspecting the flown hardware. That’s not a luxury they’ve had up until now. I would imagine it’s way easier to figure out exactly how minor issues manifested when they can go through the booster with a fine toothed comb.
I’m eager to see how they’ll address the nozzle warping. I wonder if they would do a short reentry burn after all, or whether changes to the flight profile or engine shielding would be sufficient.
With the changes in raptor 3 getting rid of the heat shields I’m wondering what this means as well. It warped with a heat shield. Prior to this, they didn’t think raptor 3 needed one, but does this change things?
I wonder how much they’ll be able to learn through thoroughly inspecting the flown hardware. That’s not a luxury they’ve had up until now. I would imagine it’s way easier to figure out exactly how minor issues manifested when they can go through the booster with a fine toothed comb.
Elon said they’ve done an initial inspection and it’s looking great. Also already found some stuff to improve that they’d never know without the catch
I’m eager to see how they’ll address the nozzle warping. I wonder if they would do a short reentry burn after all, or whether changes to the flight profile or engine shielding would be sufficient.
With the changes in raptor 3 getting rid of the heat shields I’m wondering what this means as well. It warped with a heat shield. Prior to this, they didn’t think raptor 3 needed one, but does this change things?
They won’t have this chance with the starship, although they tried. The splash-down seamed relatively smooth, but the starship exploded soon after.