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A hot staging thing [Daily Hopper]
New comic by @daily_hopper
#spacex #space #starship #ift5 @spaceflightmemes
(Slight misspelling noted: Asterix is a French comic book character. *Asterisk* is likely the intended word)
The Gaul?
Yes!
They should have designed this thing in KSP to test it out first, then they'd realize they can change timing slightly and not have to drop it at all.
SMH my head SpaceX engineers 1000% outsmarted by a video game
so what was the part?
Hot staging ring, which gets dumped after stage separation. It is a somewhat inconsequential part and won’t be jettisoned in future versions of Starship.
It's the spleen of the starship?
It's also easily swappable and if they still had to put a new one on every time, I don't think it really changes how quickly the whole platform can be ready for another launch. What matters is turnaround time, not obsessing over whether every last component makes it back in flyable condition. I personally don't think having a consumable hot stage ring would detract from the significance of a fully reusable starship platform.
SpaceX has yet to fly a used booster. They still need to finish the second tower and catch a starship. They haven't even recovered an orbital starship so little is known about how much refurbishment the heat shield will need.
I don't know why the comic author chose the hot stage ring to focus on when there's major milestones that have yet to be completed.
Someone tracked it until splashdown, so by using the camera angle and landmarks they can pinpoint the exact position it fell in and fish it out, it was pretty close to shore!
and fish it out
It appears that SpaceX have sent HOS Ridgewind to do exactly that: https://sh.itjust.works/comment/14548731 (see "Maritime" section)