Spacex shared new images of the Starship on its tenth test flight, where it managed to complete the reentry and a controlled shock in the ocean despite visible damage to the vehicle.
The material spread by Spacex shows the ship at a key moment: the moment of its spareness in the Indian Ocean, dyed of an orange tone after surviving a specially demanding reentry.
A key test. The tenth test flight departed on August 26 from Starbase, in Texas, already in the early hours of 27 in Spain, with an impeccable takeoff thanks to the 33 super heavy engines. The separation of stages was also successful and the propeller managed to merit in the ocean, fulfilling its role before the starship continued its trip to space.
The milestones in space. Once separated from the propeller, the Starship carried out a complete combustion that placed it in its suborbital trajectory and allowed to validate several key tests. Among them, the deployment of eight Starlink satellite simulators and the second redempted in the history of a Raptor engine in space, two milestones that Spacex considers essential for the development of future missions.
The challenge of the reentry. The reentry was the most critical point of the mission. Spacex had already chained several failed attempts. This, in a way, had questioned the capacity of the vehicle to survive this phase. This time, the ship faced extreme conditions.
Spacex’s message. Moments ago, Spacex published a message in which he summed up the scope of what was achieved: “Starship exceeded the reentry with missing tiles intentionally, she completed maneuvers to force her flaps, suffered visible damage in the rear skirt and flaps, and still executed a turn and a landing ignition.” Despite these conditions, the ship managed to preserve sufficient maneuverability to go accurately towards its field of shock in the Indian.
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The image released next to the statement reinforces that idea. The starship, imposing on the launch platform with all its intact thermal tiles, now appears with a very different appearance: worn, with a coppery tone that makes it seem almost “roseized” after passing through the atmosphere. Spacex has not explained the exact reason for this change, although on the Internet they have not taken to appear theories.
A millimeter closure. For Spacex, the value of the flight is not that the ship can be reused immediately, but in what has been learned during the test. Each data collected in extreme conditions approaches the company to its goal of developing the first large -sized launcher fully reusable. A key piece for the return of humanity to the moon with Artemis and future missions to Mars.
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