What SpaceX just did with Starship V3 Flap Shocked Industry...

What SpaceX just did with Starship V3 Flap Shocked Industry...
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What SpaceX just did with Starship V3 Flap Shocked Industry...
When it comes to rocket reuse, manufacturers tend to reuse the first stage rather than the upper stage. Even SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9, with 461 successful launches, only reuses the first stage and fairing.
But Starship, from its early concept to its current prototypes, has taken a completely new direction: fully reusing both the booster first stage and the Starship second stage. Especially flaps will play an extremely important role in navigating the activities of the Starship 2nd stage.
Starship is currently halfway through its plan, with three successful landing successfull on Flights 5, 7, and 8. However, the second stage still struggles to prove its reusability.
So, how does SpaceX make it happen?
Let’s find out on today’s episode of Alpha Tech:
What SpaceX just did with Starship V3 Flap Shocked Industry...
As we know, the upper stage of the starship has made two landings in the Indian Ocean quite stably, especially when it was almost intact after undergoing the re-entry process with the temperature of 4500℉ of the atmosphere. However, not stopping at this success, SpaceX immediately discussed the next versions of the starship, each version will be integrated with upgrades that promise to enhance its already impressive capabilities.
On top of that, the starship V3, as in the previous update in early 2024 by Elon Musk, is expected to include important upgrades that will have a great impact on the change of space exploration activities in the future. In the images given by Elon Musk, the front flaps have a completely different design compared to the previous Starship version 1.
Why is that?
What SpaceX just did with Starship V3 Flap Shocked Industry...
Because Starship's reusability relies heavily on its ability to guide, steer, and adjust its velocity during horizontal landing, optimisations like this are promising. In fact, this change is not too surprising because in 2021, Elon Musk announced that “forward flaps will change a lot in upcoming versions of Starship smaller and more leeward.”
This claim was made long ago, but it was not immediately applied to Starship version 1 until the flaps encountered major problems on Flight 4.
On Flight 4, the flaps encountered a problem when A flap near the camera view on Starship appeared to scorch during reentry, and particulate matter blocked some of the view of the camera. Luckily, the vehicle continued a controlled descent and performed a landing burn before splashing down about 65 minutes after liftoff.
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