Incredible Views Of SpaceX Starship Re-Entering Earth's Atmosphere.
Credit: SpaceX
Credit: SpaceX
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TechTranscript
00:00Behind it, there's some of those great views from Starlink giving us views of Starship's onboard videos.
00:10And so we're hoping that the Starlink onboard will let us, just like we're seeing these videos now,
00:15see through that plasma field by maintaining a continuous communication lock with the satellites on orbit
00:21through the wake that Starship leaves behind.
00:24Now this is only the second time that we're testing Starlink during re-entry.
00:28So even though we do have these great visuals now, don't be surprised if we manage to get some signal hiccups through.
00:35We're still learning about what that wake will actually look like in practice
00:38and whether we're able to get that live continuous high-speed data during re-entry.
00:47Yeah, that's right.
00:48And one of the really primary reasons we want to use Starlink is to just gather as much data as possible.
00:54It's been said the data is the payload on one of these flights where we're putting this flight hardware
01:01in a real flight environment, trying to learn about it as much as possible.
01:06Re-entry is going to be a really critical phase of flight.
01:09We really want to know how the ship's going to perform, especially that heat shield,
01:14as we're going through the hypersonic re-entry.
01:16So if something were to go wrong during this re-entry, we want as many paths as possible to collect that information,
01:23that data, just to, again, just continually feed back into the Starship program
01:29to make each flight more reliable, more successful.
01:32Acquisition of single, Mauritius.
01:33Now, if Starship manages to make it all the way through re-entry,
01:46we'll collect valuable data on Starship flying through the Earth's atmosphere at hypersonic speeds,
01:51meaning more than five, or at this point, we'll be more than five times the speed of sound.
01:56Now, we're watching these live views, HD views by the looks of it, thanks to Starlink.
02:04You can see that the flaps there on the ship might be actuating.
02:14Certainly some incredible visions of planet Earth behind Starship.
02:21Now, we've already validated Starship's ability to fly and land at subsonic speeds.
02:28You might recall those suborbital flights from a few years ago, and we can see those flaps there.
02:36So getting data on aspects like heating and control while traveling way faster than we did before
02:42is going to be critical to eventually bringing Starships back from space for rapid reuse.
02:47So I mentioned those flaps. That's one of the things that enables Starship to help control itself
02:53and survive the heat of re-entry, which, like we said before, we're expecting that re-entry to occur around T plus 49 minutes.
03:01So we're getting pretty close here.
03:03And what you're seeing here, it looks like the vehicle is sort of moving back and forth.
03:07Part of what you're also seeing is one of the cameras, this onboard view that we have, is on the end of a flap.
03:13Starship has front flaps and rear flaps in the vehicle.
03:16So we've got four of those.
03:19And, oh man, we can see the heating on those flaps as we're starting to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
03:24This is where the Earth's atmosphere is doing the work to slow us down.
03:29Now, like we said, this plasma field is, wow, what a view.
03:34We hope to maintain these views throughout.
03:37Starship is so big that we're hoping that the plasma field doesn't entirely blanket the entire vehicle.
03:43Right now, it is not.
03:46The Starlinks are still...
03:46Views brought to you by Starlinks.
03:48Yeah, the Starlinks are still communicating and still capturing the data and the video that we see here.
03:54I mean, Shiva, this is just absolutely incredible views.
03:57We've never seen anything like this before.
03:59This is the biggest flying object ever in space.
04:02Absolutely, Kate.
04:03And 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.
04:13So 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.
04:22And just the fact that we have views through entry, this is incredible.
04:25Yeah, again, this is the furthest and fastest that Starship has ever flown.
04:33And you can definitely tell by the crowd here in Hawthorne.
04:39The heat shield tiles doing their work.
04:41We talked about it earlier.
04:43Up to 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit that those heat shield tiles are dissipating as we are reentering.
04:50Yeah, now this was one of the critical or rather the key mission objectives that we were hoping to hit today.
04:58We have never, like I said before, this is the fastest and furthest that Starship has ever flown.
05:02So this is the first time that we're getting to collect this reentry data and understand how these 18,000 hexagonal heat shield tiles are working together to protect the belly of Starship as it reenters the Earth's atmosphere.
05:16Once again, the atmosphere is doing us a big favor here by acting as a braking system for Starship as it reenters the atmosphere.
05:31And that's part of the reason why the flaps are so important.
05:34We're using the body of Starship and the drag from the atmosphere to slow us down from orbital speed.
05:40But you want the vehicle to remain stable.
05:43You want those heat shield tiles pointed down so they can absorb the heat of the Earth's atmosphere.
05:51And so that's the purpose that they are serving during the hypersonic phase and then again during the subsonic phase.
05:57Absolutely.
05:58So like we said, these views are being provided by a couple of Starlink terminals that are positioned on Starship itself.
06:06As that plasma builds, we're hoping that we can bring these views back to you.
06:11But you can see the telemetry there on the right-hand side of your screen.
06:15If you watch closely, you can see the speed decelerating.
06:18Again, 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.
06:29So we'll bring those views back to you if we get them.
06:30But right now, for those of you that have recently joined, Starship is currently re-entering Earth's atmosphere.
06:38This is super exciting because it's the furthest and fastest that Starship has ever flown.
06:43It's just absolutely incredible.
06:45Major test milestone, something we wanted to accomplish on flight 2, getting to it today.
06:49So just awesome.
06:52Now, we actually have some heat shields here.
06:54So these are what's doing all the work on Starship right now.
06:58There are 18,000 hexagonal heat shields like these.
07:03So this one that I have is flat.
07:06Like, this is what would be positioned on the flaps of Starship, whereas Shiva has something a little different.
07:11Yeah, the one I have would be on the curved surfaces of Starship.
07:15I'll just put it in frame here.
07:17So we've got these attached at various points around the vehicle.
07:20Like you said, Kate, 18,000 of these tiles are around.
07:23And they're doing the work to make sure that the structure of the vehicle doesn't carry all that thermal load.
07:28So we can recover the vehicles eventually and get to rapid reuse on them.
07:33They're really lightweight.
07:34They sound a little different than I would have expected them to.
07:38But they are ceramic.
07:40And these are what's helping Starship survive through this period of entry.
07:46We're not sure how far we're going to make it.
07:49Again, this is the furthest that we've gotten in our test flight.
07:52But the further we fly, the more data that we can get.
07:55And that's ultimately the measure of success here, which, I mean, I think today has been a huge success,
08:01given where we've gone and how much further we've gotten with both the booster and Starship.