{"id":43814,"date":"2025-08-27T21:59:45","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T13:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/with-starship-spacex-encounters-an-obstacle-that-haunted-nasas-space-shuttles\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T21:59:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T13:59:45","slug":"with-starship-spacex-encounters-an-obstacle-that-haunted-nasas-space-shuttles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/with-starship-spacex-encounters-an-obstacle-that-haunted-nasas-space-shuttles\/","title":{"rendered":"With Starship, SpaceX encounters an obstacle that haunted NASA\u2019s space shuttles"},"content":{"rendered":"

STARBASE, Texas\u2014For the third day in a row, SpaceX engineers prepared to send the company\u2019s massive Starship rocket into space Tuesday after a technical problem and bad weather grounded the test flight on two previous launch attempts.<\/p>\n

The one-hour launch window opens at 6:30 pm CDT (7:30 pm EDT; 23:30 UTC) at SpaceX\u2019s sprawling rocket development site in South Texas, just a couple of miles north of the mouth of the Rio Grande River at the US-Mexico border.<\/p>\n

SpaceX called off a launch attempt Sunday after detecting a leak in the plumbing that flows super-cold liquid oxygen propellant into the rocket. Technicians fixed the problem in time for another countdown 24 hours later, but the risk of lightning in the area prevented Starship from lifting off Monday evening.<\/p>\n

Now, the Starship launch team hopes the third time is the charm. SpaceX will begin loading more than 10 million pounds of cryogenic methane and liquid oxygen propellants into the 404-foot-tall (123.1-meter) rocket about an hour before launch Tuesday.<\/p>\n

On this flight, SpaceX aims to launch Starship halfway around the world from Texas toward a splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The three previous test flights failed before Starship reached its target. You can read more about the goals of the 10th Starship flight in our earlier story.<\/p>\n

The failures illustrated the challenge SpaceX is trying to solve with Starship, the tallest and most powerful rocket ever built.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t break the heat shield<\/h2>\n

\u201cThere are thousands of engineering challenges that remain for both the ship and the booster, but maybe the single biggest one is the reusable orbital heat shield,\u201d said Elon Musk, SpaceX\u2019s founder and CEO, on Monday.<\/p>\n

SpaceX started off flying Starships with roughly 18,000 hexagonal tiles, each about the size of a dinner plate. These tiles were made of ceramic material, similar to the design of the heat shield tiles that flew on NASA\u2019s space shuttles. Beginning with a test flight in January, SpaceX introduced its \u201clatest generation tiles\u201d and added a backup layer between the tiles and Starship\u2019s underlying stainless steel structure to protect it from heat shield damage.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A camera aboard Starship captured this view of a plasma sheath enveloping the vehicle during reentry over the Indian Ocean last year.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n SpaceX<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Returning from space, the ship sees temperatures up to 2,600\u00b0 Fahrenheit (1,430\u00b0 Celsius), hot enough to melt aluminum. One of the reasons SpaceX chose stainless steel for Starship\u2019s primary structure is because of the metal\u2019s higher melting point.<\/p>\n

Eventually, SpaceX wants to catch ships coming back from space with big mechanical arms on the launch pad, similar to the way SpaceX has shown it can recover the rocket\u2019s huge Super Heavy booster. This would allow SpaceX to theoretically stack a freshly flown ship on top of a booster right on the launch pad, then quickly refuel it and launch it again.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of things SpaceX must prove before the company is able to do this. But SpaceX has already demonstrated it can handle some of the more obvious problems, such as repeatedly igniting the rocket\u2019s Raptor engines. The most definitive test will be SpaceX\u2019s success or failure with Starship\u2019s heat shield.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident in making a fully reusable orbital heat shield but it will require many flights, many iterations to figure out where the weak points are in the heat shield, where we need to change the design, either strengthening the tile or changing how big the gap is between tiles, or changing what\u2019s underneath the tile,\u201d Musk said in a discussion broadcast on SpaceX\u2019s official livestream of Monday\u2019s Starship launch countdown.<\/p>\n

The heat shield was one of the most vexing problems with NASA\u2019s space shuttle program. Thousands of tiles peeled off of the space shuttle Columbia<\/em> when NASA first flew the orbiter on top of its modified 747 carrier aircraft in 1979. Tile damage was a regular occurrence throughout the shuttle program\u2019s 30-year service life, necessitating tile repairs and replacement inside the shuttle\u2019s hangar between missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe space shuttle heat shield would come back essentially partially broken and would require many months of refurbishment in order to fly again,\u201d Musk said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to achieve here with Starship is to have a heat shield that can be reflown immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

On each Starship flight this year, SpaceX has sought to test the performance of new tile designs, including metallic insulators and heat shield sections with \u201cactive cooling\u201d to help dissipate the scorching temperatures of reentry into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s space shuttle Columbia<\/em> lost thousands of thermal protection tiles during a 1979 flight on top of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a modified 747 jumbo jet.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n NASA<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cThere are 100 different variables that we could tweak with the heat shield tiles, but the only way to know exactly what we should be adjusting is to fly repeatedly and to be able to examine the ship upon landing,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

Before SpaceX can test the heat shield repeatedly, Starship must first make it through a single flight from start to finish. It has failed to do this on all three attempts this year, following a year of progress with Starship in 2024. SpaceX guided Starship to a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean on several occasions last year.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have successfully brought the ship back through the atmosphere and achieved a soft landing multiple times, so we know that this is possible,\u201d Musk said. \u201cBut we have, in the process, shed many heat shield tiles, so we need to be able to do this without shedding heat shield tiles and do so repeatedly.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX also must make sure the launch pad\u2019s catch arms don\u2019t damage Starship\u2019s heat shield when it comes in for landing. This will only be attempted after SpaceX officials are comfortable they have solved the heat shield problem during tests over the ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure we don\u2019t scrape the tiles off as we slide along the chopstick arms,\u201d said Bill Riley, SpaceX\u2019s vice president of Starship engineering.<\/p>\n

Charlie Camarda, a former NASA astronaut, engineer, and materials scientist, worked on alternatives to the shuttle\u2019s heat shield beginning in the 1970s. One of his first jobs at NASA was to demonstrate the feasibility of a heat shield for the leading edge of the space shuttle\u2019s wings that used heat pipes for active cooling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were interested in looking at the more durable systems,\u201d Camarda told Ars. \u201cThe first thing I ever tested was actually an all-metallic shuttle wing leading edge, and it used heat pipes, and it was built by McDonnell Douglas. It was a competitor with the reinforced carbon-carbon, the passive leading edge system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, NASA went with the reinforced carbon-carbon heat shield for the leading edges of the shuttle\u2019s wings and nose cap, while the belly of the shuttle was shielded by ceramic tiles. It was one of these reinforced carbon-carbon panels that broke on the space shuttle Columbia<\/em> when it was hit by a piece of foam from the shuttle\u2019s external fuel tank during launch in January 2003. The damage was undetected until the shuttle broke apart during reentry 16 days later, killing all seven astronauts onboard.<\/p>\n

Camarda flew as a mission specialist on the next shuttle flight in 2005 after NASA developed techniques to repair a damaged heat shield in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did a lot of very early on radiant heating tests and hypersonic wind tunnel tests of this all-metallic wing leading edge, and it would basically take the heat from the lower surface and basically pump it up to the upper surface, so the entire wing leading edge would glow almost at the same temperature because it was such an effective two-phase heat transfer,\u201d Camarda said.<\/p>\n

Camarda\u2019s work in the thermal structures branch at NASA\u2019s Langley Research Center was limited to ground testing in high-temperature wind tunnels. His designs never flew on the space shuttle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw [SpaceX] was testing different kinds of metallic heat shields, the guys\u2026 in my old branch, were all saying, \u2018Wow, this is phenomenal! We wish we were young again and NASA was this vivacious, you know?\u2019 But unfortunately, we didn\u2019t get to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camarda said NASA\u2019s approach to testing is a lot different from the way SpaceX handles things.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

NASA astronaut Chris Ferguson, STS-135 commander, right, and pilot Doug Hurley, left, examine the thermal tiles of the orbiter after the space shuttle Atlantis<\/em> landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, completing STS-135, the final mission of the NASA shuttle program, on Thursday, July 21, 2011.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n Smiley N. Pool\/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing what these guys are doing, and they\u2019re doing it so rapidly, and they\u2019re testing a lot of things all at once,\u201d Camarda said. \u201cI almost wonder if that\u2019s a smart thing to do. He\u2019s failing large. Is his vehicle that inexpensive that he could use it as a hypersonic flight test? Is it so inexpensive that he could afford to do that?<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a research center, we had such limited budgets that we had to scrimp and save every little thing,\u201d Camarda said. \u201cSo, we would take a building block approach, and never be so bold as to do this very large test with multiple hundreds of changes. It\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The elephant in the room<\/h2>\n

SpaceX has blamed Starship\u2019s setbacks this year on fuel leaks and an engine malfunction. Apart from the program\u2019s in-flight failures, another Starship exploded during a ground test in June when a nitrogen tank failed.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Elon Musk didn\u2019t mention any of this when he appeared for roughly 20 minutes on SpaceX\u2019s live webcast Monday. Musk originally planned to provide a \u201ctechnical update\u201d on the X Spaces platform Sunday. In this format, Musk presumably could have answered questions from members of the space press corps and space enthusiasts hungry for details not just on the promise of a rocket as potentially revolutionary as Starship, but the obstacles SpaceX must overcome to make it a reality.<\/p>\n

But SpaceX canceled the event without explanation. Instead, Musk appeared on SpaceX\u2019s official prelaunch livestream. Most of the discussion centered not on detailed technical updates, but on familiar Musk talking points: making humanity a multi-planet species, and why a rocket like Starship is necessary to make it happen.<\/p>\n

After the heat shield, one of the next big test objectives for the Starship program will be in-orbit refueling. This is a crucial prerequisite for any Starship flights that travel into deep space. SpaceX\u2019s gigantic rocket is designed to haul up to 150 metric tons of payload into low-Earth orbit, but it can\u2019t go any farther without a recharge of its cryogenic propellant tanks.<\/p>\n

This, like so much of the privately developed Starship program, is something that\u2019s never been done in space before. Musk said this is something he \u201chopes to demonstrate next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage stand fully fueled for launch Monday, moments before officials scrubbed the countdown due to bad weather.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n Stephen Clark\/Ars Technica<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

But the schedule is fuzzy. Musk has recently claimed SpaceX will send its first uncrewed Starships to Mars next year, too. That won\u2019t happen without acing orbital refueling, something that NASA officials believe will likely take multiple tries to master.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Why is NASA interested in Starship refueling? The US space agency has more than $4 billion in contracts with SpaceX to develop a human-rated version of Starship that can land astronauts on the Moon. With these contracts, NASA is counting on Starship being ready to deliver a crew to the lunar surface before China.<\/p>\n

The Moon was conspicuously absent from Musk\u2019s discussion Monday. He said the word \u201cMars\u201d at least 13 times, but didn\u2019t mention the Moon at all. During his previous presentation on Starship in May, he devoted just 40 seconds of a 40-minute talk to the Moon.<\/p>\n

This is notable, but not a surprise. Musk has called the Moon a \u201cdistraction\u201d and in January wrote on X that SpaceX is \u201cgoing straight to Mars.\u201d Even before his falling out with President Donald Trump this summer, Musk told Ars in May that the Artemis program\u2019s \u201cambitions are too low.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be going 1,000 times farther, and going to Mars,\u201d Musk said at the time.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, NASA\u2019s acting administrator, Sean Duffy, continues to reiterate the agency\u2019s goal of landing astronauts on the Moon with Starship on the Artemis III mission in 2027. Duffy, who also serves as the secretary of transportation, said last month he was assured by SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell that the company is on pace with the Starship lander.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said if there\u2019s a hold-up for Artemis III, it\u2019s not going to be them,\u201d Duffy said.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s impossible to escape the tension between the government\u2019s goals in space and those of SpaceX. Maybe a successful Starship test flight would help break the ice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STARBASE, Texas\u2014For the third day in a row, SpaceX engineers prepared to send the company\u2019s massive Starship rocket into space Tuesday after a technical problem and bad weather grounded the test flight on two previous launch attempts. The one-hour launch window opens at 6:30 pm CDT (7:30 pm EDT; 23:30 UTC) at SpaceX\u2019s sprawling rocket […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43814"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}