100%?
Aft flaps got cooked, and they lost some debris from the aft engine skirt ....
probably more like 98%.
Which is EXCELLENT.
I wonder why they didn’t catch the heavy booster?
I got a techno-woodie watching it!
The plasma always gives me a chub. What caused the aft skirt to get damaged.. chunk of ice? More study required.
This flight reached all goals. More data = Next flight even better!
GREAT JOB TEAM SPACEX !!!!!
Link?
And watching Starlink mock-up Satellites get dispensed from Starship like a pez dispenser was bloody awesome too!
Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/d6d2hHgMa0— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 26, 2025
I only wish I was still a YOUNG Engineer. Working on the Starship program would be the best.
This was a great success, but there was a lot going on. Booster stage was not caught for two reasons. One, old design, no need to keep it around and they are testing return profiles to better fuel economy. Less fuel needed on return more payload they can send up. Booster was caught twice and new booster has changes to catch mechanics.
Starship sent out 8 starlink simulators. This tested out all the mechanics to launch v3 starlink satellites. They could start launching starlink satellites very soon and still continue to conduct tests. Despite minor damage during reentry, the flaps operated correctly with some extreme motion testing. I have some question about the reentry profile, not sure if the reentry was extreme or just some of the tests during reentry were extreme.
The amount of damage to the ship was light compared to the the last two reentries. The early ones, flaps burned through close the to the hinges and it still managed to stay in control. The goal of reuse on a ship that does reentry without the full tile replacement like the space shuttle is a giant goal. It looks to be very close given the progress from the first reentries to now.