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(Alleged) Photo of the Flight 6 payload bay during reentry (forum.nasaspaceflight.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/spacex@sh.itjust.works
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Image link from NSF forum.

Originally leaked on X (I think), then posted to the SpaceXLounge subreddit by u/mehelponow

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[–] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Yeah, the Spaceshuttle was a cautionary tale and the Ship doesn't seem to have a fundamentally different approach. But lets see how things will develop.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    I don't think the shuttle is a good example at all.

    The reusability was just marketing shtick so a large enough vehicle could be built to launch multiple Hubble-chassis Keyhole satellites for the NSA. (It's probably more accurate to say the Hubble is built on a Keyhole satellite chassis).

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Yet the technology it used for the heat shield was very similar to what SpaceX is trying to do with the Ship.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Shuttle was aluminium beneath the thermal tiles, so damage to the tiles was catastrophic. The expectation is Starship will be okay with a few tiles out, partly because steel is much more capable than aluminium, and partly because they have backup thermal protection

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Sure, but there it a huge chasm between "catastrophic failure" and "looks good to go again next week", and even minor structural damage will prevent rapid resuse.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I'd much rather be on a spacecraft that wore out too soon than one that catastrophically failed

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Sure, but the rare catastrophic failure issue is not why the Spaceshuttle is widely considered an engineering failure. The real issue with it was that the re-usability of it turned out to be a huge money sink. Spaceship might face a similar fate with those heat-tiles.

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