this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025
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(Alleged) Photo of the Flight 6 payload bay during reentry (forum.nasaspaceflight.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Image link from NSF forum.

Originally leaked on X (I think), then posted to the SpaceXLounge subreddit by u/mehelponow

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (13 children)

Well that isn't fully and rapidly reusable. Goddamn. I was starting to feel better about booster reuse soon. Maybe that's still the case, but, man, what the hell is this.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Wasn't this flight the one where SpaceX intentionally removed a bunch of heat shield tiles?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I think this is all coming from the flap hinges. The hotspots on the leeward part are sparks from the sides. They fall that direction since the re-entry is applying some drag.

The intentionally missing tiles were just on the engine skirt section IIRC. So this isn't necessarily a problem with the main heat shield. The V2 flap design might mitigate it completely. We can't really say much from just one (alleged) image.

Edit: The IFT7 stream stated SN33 has missing tiles spread over the entire heat shield this time.

Edit2: Not going to see anything from IFT7 re-entry.

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