Lost on reentry
Of all the problems endured during IFT-3, the inability of Starship to survive reentry is perhaps the most serious. Approximately 49 minutes into the mission, Starship suddenly went silent while reentering above the Indian Ocean and disintegrated, preventing the planned hard splashdown in the ocean. SpaceX will now have to carefully evaluate the reentry, during which Starship’s 18,000 hexagonal Thermal Protection System endured temperatures reaching 2,600 degrees F. The 165-foot-long (50-meter) Starship, larger than NASA’s retired Space Shuttle, is designed for reuse, and without the ability to safely return to terra firma, it’s just an oversized rocket.
