“ONE OF THE key questions is—does that seal work? We predict it can work, however it could not work,” mentioned Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX, on June fifth, as his firm’s Starship rocket was being ready for its fourth take a look at flight the next day. He was referring to 1 explicit part of the rocket: the thermal safety across the steering flaps used throughout re-entry from orbit. Mr Musk was speaking to Tim Dodd, a YouTuber referred to as On a regular basis Astronaut. Within the occasion, the take a look at flight went nicely: the launch went as deliberate and there was no “speedy unscheduled disassembly” (ie, catastrophic explosion). However the concentrate on the seal round these flaps proved to be strikingly prescient.
