On the side note, it looked like their heat shield performed better than ever. Not only it shown low damage during splashdown, it also was exposed to heating in upper atmosphere for around minute more than normal due to course correction
this post was submitted on 23 May 2026
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One vacuum engine went out on starship but the 3 sea level engines gimbaled to compensate and continue on to released all 22 starlink simulators, then land vertical in the ocean as if at the tower.
Also, they had to 'glide' in upper atmosphere for additional ~60s to hit the landing zone. I think they almost ran out of fuel due to engine failure
Yeah they also lost a sea level raptor on the booster towards the end of the accent. That's honestly not a big deal, losing 1/28 engines at a point in the flight when they're already probably throttling down a bunch.
But still, they've got some kinks to work out with the raptor 3.
That said, did you see how much faster it left the launch pad? They've seriously increased the thrust with these new raptors.
Scott Manley made video about this. Turns out with raptor 2 they were slow starting on purpose, while now they went full throttle immediately.
Fuck anyone that supports that pedo
i'm not a fan of musk at all; however this is in the technology community because it's a good technological breakthrough.
And, it shouldn't need to be said, Elon Musk has exactly zero to do with this other than paying.
This is a conversation between engineers and physics.