Incredible Views Of SpaceX Starship Re-Entering Earth's Atmosphere
Incredible Views Of SpaceX Starship Re-Entering Earth's Atmosphere.
Credit: SpaceX
Credit: SpaceX
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TechTranscript
00:00 had
00:27 to
00:29 do that. We're still learning about what that wake will look like in practice and whether we're able to get that live continuous high-speed data during reentry.
00:44 That's right. And one of the really primary reasons we want to use Starlink is to just gather as much data as possible. It's been said the data is the payload on one of these flights.
00:59 We're putting this flight hardware in a real flight environment, trying to learn about it as much as possible. Reentry is going to be a really critical phase of flight.
01:17 If something were to go wrong during this reentry, we want as many paths as possible to collect that information, that data, just to again, just continually feedback into the Starship program to make each flight more reliable, more successful.
01:32 Acquisition. See you, old Marisha.
01:42 Now if Starship manages to make it all the way through reentry, we'll collect valuable data on Starship flying through the Earth's atmosphere at hypersonic speeds, meaning at this point we'll be more than five times the speed of sound.
01:59 Now we're watching these live views, HD views by the looks of it, thanks to Starlink. You can see that the flaps there on the ship might be actuating certainly some incredible visions of planet Earth behind Starship.
02:21 Now we've already validated Starship's ability to fly and land at subsonic speeds. You might recall those suborbital flights from a few years ago, and we can see those flaps there.
02:36 So getting data on aspects like heating and control while traveling way faster than we did before is going to be critical to eventually bringing Starships back from space for rapid reuse.
02:47 So I mentioned those flaps, that's one of the things that enables Starship to help control itself and survive the heat of reentry, which like we said before, we're expecting that reentry to occur around T plus 49 minutes, so we're getting pretty close here.
03:03 And what you're seeing here, it looks like the vehicle is sort of moving back and forth. Part of what you're also seeing is one of the cameras, this onboard view that we have, is on the end of a flap.
03:13 Starship has front flaps and rear flaps in the vehicle. So we've got four of those, and oh man, we can see the heating on those flaps as we're starting to reenter the Earth's atmosphere.
03:24 This is where the Earth's atmosphere is doing the work to slow us down.
03:29 Now like we said, this plasma field is, wow, what a view. We hope to maintain these views throughout. Starship is so big that we're hoping that the plasma field doesn't entirely blanket the entire vehicle.
03:44 Right now, it is not. The star links are still communicating and still capturing the data and the video that we see here.
03:54 I mean, Shiva, this is just absolutely incredible views. We've never seen anything like this before. This is the biggest flying object ever in space.
04:02 Absolutely, Kate. And it's important to note, the ascent burn that we did was to get us to orbital velocities, even though we were on a nearly orbital trajectory.
04:13 So the heating and the loads that Starship is going through right now are what it would be getting if it were recovering from an orbital mission.
04:22 And just the fact that we have views through entry, this is incredible.
04:26 Yeah, again, this is the furthest and fastest that Starship has ever flown.
04:34 And you can definitely tell by the crowd here in Hawthorne.
04:39 The heat shield tiles doing their work. We talked about it earlier, up to 2600 degrees Fahrenheit that those heat shield tiles are dissipating as we are reentering.
04:51 Yeah, now this was one of the critical or rather the key mission objectives that we were hoping to hit today.
04:58 We have never, like I said before, this is the fastest and furthest that Starship has ever flown.
05:03 This is the first time that we're getting to collect this reentry data and understand how these 18000 hexagonal heat shield tiles are working together to protect the belly of Starship as it reenters the Earth's atmosphere.
05:17 Once again, the atmosphere is doing us a big favor here.
05:24 The atmosphere is actually doing us a huge favor here by acting as a braking system for Starship as it reenters the atmosphere.
05:31 And that's part of the reason why the flaps are so important.
05:34 We're using the body of Starship and the drag from the atmosphere to slow us down from orbital speed.
05:40 But you want the vehicle to remain stable. You want those heat shield tiles pointed down so they can absorb the heat of the Earth's atmosphere.
05:50 And so that's the purpose that they are serving during the hypersonic phase and then again during the subsonic phase.
05:57 Absolutely. So like we said, these views are being provided by a couple of Starlink terminals that are positioned on Starship itself.
06:06 As that plasma builds, we're hoping that we can bring these views back to you.
06:11 But you can see the telemetry there on the right hand side of your screen.
06:15 If you watch closely, you can see the speed decelerating.
06:18 Again, that's the friction of the atmosphere resulting in this plasma field, or excuse me, the blanket that is potentially blocking the Starlink terminals right now.
06:28 So we'll bring those views back to you if we get them.
06:31 But right now, for those of you that have recently joined, Starship is currently reentering Earth's atmosphere.
06:38 This is super exciting because it's the furthest and fastest that Starship has ever flown.
06:43 It's just absolutely incredible. Major test milestone, something we wanted to accomplish on flight to getting to it today.
06:49 So just awesome.
06:52 Now, we actually have some heat shields here, so these are what's doing all the work on Starship right now.
06:59 There are 18000 hexagonal heat shields like these.
07:03 So this one that I have is flat, like this is what would be positioned on the flaps of Starship, whereas Shiva has something a little different.
07:11 Yeah, the one I have would be on the curved surfaces of Starship.
07:15 I'll just put it in frame here.
07:17 So we've got these attached at various points around the vehicle.
07:20 Like you said, Kate, 18000 of these tiles around, and they're doing the work to make sure that the structure of the vehicle doesn't carry all that thermal load.
07:29 So we can recover the vehicles eventually and get to rapid reuse.
07:33 They're really lightweight.
07:35 They sound a little different than I would have expected them to, but they are ceramic.
07:40 And these are what's helping Starship survive through this period of entry.
07:47 We're not sure how far we're going to make it.
07:49 Again, this is the furthest that we've gotten in our test flight.
07:52 But the further we fly, the more data that we can get.
07:55 And that's ultimately the measure of success here, which I mean, I think today has been a huge success given where we where we've gone and how much further we've gotten with both the booster and Starship.