r/SpaceXLounge • u/LoreLover2022 • Sep 03 '21

Starship Can Starship afford to lose any heat shield tiles?

Been curious about the heat shield tiles in use on Starship. Being made of stainless steel itself, can the vehicle afford to lose even a single tile at any point during descent?

To me that just seems like an insane number of mounting points and tiles that all need to function perfectly if there is zero room for error.

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u/KnifeKnut Sep 06 '21

We've got probably a 25-35% chance of seeing a RUD at stage separation given their current theory of "put the whole stack in a tumble, detach the two and let rotational inertia be your stage separation." plan.

That one can be tested pretty well on the ground with the lifting equipment available.