This topic discusses the forthcoming SpaceX third flight test of the integrated Starship (#28) and Super Heavy booster (#10), currently scheduled for launch no earlier than 2024-03-14. The planned flight, if successful, will launch the craft on a near-orbital trajectory, with the first stage booster performing a boost back burn and soft water landing (braked by a landing burn) in the Gulf of Mexico, and the upper stage Starship accelerating to a velocity slightly less than orbital speed, causing it to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. The altered reentry from prior Pacific targets allows testing various maneuvers:
The third flight test aims to build on what we’ve learned from previous flights while attempting a number of ambitious objectives, including the successful ascent burn of both stages, opening and closing Starship’s payload door, a propellant transfer demonstration during the upper stage’s coast phase, the first ever re-light of a Raptor engine while in space, and a controlled reentry of Starship. It will also fly a new trajectory, with Starship targeted to splashdown in the Indian Ocean. This new flight path enables us to attempt new techniques like in-space engine burns while maximizing public safety.
per the SpaceX Upcoming Launch page for the mission which will be updated with schedule information as the launch approaches.
I’m guessing (hoping) this ~10m before reentry burn is not necessary in order to ensure reentry, so that if an explosion happens at this stage the debris will have a perigee adequate to reenter anyway.
But look on the bright side – there were also a whole lot of tiles that were not falling off. That suggests there is room for manufacturing improvement in the consistency with which tiles are attached – such that all future tiles equal the attachment performance of today’s best-attached tiles. And if there is one thing that SpaceX has demonstrated, it is that they are very good indeed at analyzing failures and making improvements.
