SpaceX’s Unseen Next Generation Starship Rocket To Avoid Re-entry Fires Revealed

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With Starship Flight proving that a tower catch is indeed possible, SpaceX is now racing to upgrade the design of the second stage Starship to avoid flap damage during atmospheric reentry. The upper stage Starship's forward flap was one of the highlights of Flight 4, as, throughout the spacecraft's reentry, the appendage was engulfed in fire. Yet, despite the damage, Starship survived reentry and made its first successful soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean to allow SpaceX to progress towards an eventual ship tower catch.

Soon after Flight 4, Elon Musk shared that future Starship upper stages would feature upgraded flaps that would remove the chances of a fire and now we have the first image of the new design.

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SpaceX's fourth Starship flight was the first in which the ship survived during atmospheric reentry. Its subsequent successful soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean validated SpaceX's heat shield design. It put to rest worries of falling heat shield tiles affecting the ship's performance, and SpaceX also shared that it had deliberately left some tiles missing to understand the aerodynamic effects of atmospheric reentry on the shield.

Along with live views of atmospheric reentry courtesy of SpaceX's Starlink internet, Flight 4 also captured public imagination through an anomaly on the upper stage's forward flap. This flap is located at the top of the rocket, and it is indispensable to Starship's re usability as it steers the ship to the landing area.

The anomaly saw the region where the flap connected with the rocket's body catch fire and remain on fire throughout its descent. However, Starship proved to be robust and successfully oriented itself for a vertical soft