Starship’s Thermal Protection Trials: SpaceX’s Bold Experimentation on Falcon 9

Rare flights of the Starship and the prolonged refinement of the heat shield, which remains problematic even after years of iterations, have forced SpaceX to take an unconventional step-starting to test thermal tiles during Falcon 9 launches. The main task is to deal with the massive detachment of tiles at the Starship ascent stage, where their loss is still at an unacceptable level. With Falcon 9 remaining the company’s main “workhorse” and flying orders of magnitude more frequently, using it for such experiments seems quite rational. During tests, the tiles are mounted on a special substrate, which is installed on the Falcon 9 fairing. During the flight, specialists monitor how many elements cannot withstand the stresses from the oncoming flow and vibrations. Observation is conducted with a camera on the second stage. According to available data, there have already been at least two such experimental launches, and their number will increase in the future.

Meanwhile, SpaceX did not limit itself only to flight tests. At the company’s proving ground in McGregor, a separate facility has been built for ground tests dedicated to the same problem. Unlike the experiments with fairings, here you can flexibly change the angles of impact, pressure, and other parameters, which allows for a deeper understanding of the tiles’ behavior. In anticipation of the 12th Starship flight, SpaceX engineers have to look for non-standard solutions. It is assumed that as the frequency of Starship launches itself increases, the need for such temporary measures will gradually disappear.