The Starship upper stage performs an uncontrolled reentry
Once freed from the Super Heavy booster, the Starship upper stage, designated Ship 25 (a duplicate of Ship 24 from the first flight), will travel over the Caribbean, southern Africa, the Indian Ocean, and New Guinea. The plan is for Starship to splash down in the Pacific Ocean roughly 62 miles (100 km) off the northwest coast of Kauai, which is part of the Hawaiian archipelago.
The upper stage is powered by six Raptor engines, three of which, known as RVAC, are optimized for use in the vacuum of space. In the unfortunate event that these engines fail—or some other technological calamity—the 85-ton Starship could perform an uncontrolled reentry through Earth’s atmosphere and crash at an undesignated location.
