Experten warnen, dass die derzeitige Hitzeschildtechnologie von Starship eine „Sackgasse“ für eine schnelle Wiederverwendung darstellt | Die NASA hat seit Jahrzehnten keine nennenswerten Investitionen in die Wärmeschutzforschung getätigt.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/despite-recent-successes-rapid-reuse-of-starship-remains-a-tough-nut-to-crack/
40 Kommentare
>SpaceX successfully launched its Starship vehicle on Friday and appeared to demonstrate important and credible steps toward fulfilling the massive rocket’s immense promise. As soon as the vehicle’s next flight, Starship could go orbital, begin delivering satellites into space, and potentially return to the launch site to be ‘caught’ by the tower.
>All of this is impressive engineering on a gigantic scale. But despite the marked progress with the 13th test flight of Starship, one key issue—probably the key issue when it comes to Starship’s future—remains unresolved.
>This concerns Starship’s heat shield, the roughly 18,000 ceramic tiles that protect the vehicle’s underbelly during its fiery return through Earth’s atmosphere. And some experts say SpaceX’s current approach may not get Starship to its ultimate goal of flying frequently, at low cost.
yeah its all NASA’s Fault
>Back in February on a podcast with Dwarkesh Patel, Musk expounded on this, saying a reusable heat shield is “the biggest problem that remains” for Starship. “If you want to be able to land it, refill propellant, and fly again, you can’t do this laborious inspection of 40,000 tiles type of thing,” he said.
Stupid question: Why can’t they just make the heatshield be one big tile rather than 40,000 small tiles? Then they could just swap a new heatshield on in a few minutes.
NASA also hasn’t actually tried for years
They basically copied Apollo for Orion, badly and then had to revert to the same fix Apollo did
Camarda is the same guy who said Artemis 2 shouldn’t launch for another year for more tests
These guys love test chambers and hate real world tests
People also said this about vertically landing and flying boosters until SpaceX did – then watched as SpaceX did something way more impressive than their tiny grant program over a shorter time period.
Wow! Why didn’t those idiots at SpaceX think of this??? Someone call Elon before he wastes billions.
Are these the same experts that said SpaceX would never recover a first stage and even if they did it would never be economical again to reuse?
The main source quoted is well versed in the field having invented PICA, but at the same time someone with decades of experience can fail to see ways to overcome new challenges.
As the article states SpaceX is aware of the issues of rapid reuse but the expert or the article fails to offer* any alternative idea other than the path they are pursuing which is trying to use mostly the same size and shape of tile and making replacing them relatively quick. Maybe they don’t get there but I’m not exactly sure what they are supposed to do other than pursue those two goals as best they can.
Breaking news: trees found in forest.
Well yes, just like the Space Shuttle
If anyone can engineer their way out of this problem, I suspect it would be SX.
Breaking news – we’ve always done it this way, no other way will work – quoted by someone at NASA
wait so SpaceX is just using NASA’s designs? Can someone with more knowledge explain?
Why ahould the federal government be funding Musks business expenses for a project they have not contracted him to do?
Eric Berger should know better than release an article with such a headline, right?
# Experts warn current [privatized space company’s] heat shield tech is a “dead end” for rapid reuse | [government space agency] has not made substantial investments in thermal protection research for decades.
„it’s never been done so it can’t be done“
Said „experts“ everywhere about many many things that are commonplace today.
I sort of agree with this assessment but only so far as it might be a „dead end“ for „*rapid*“ reuse, not a dead end generally.
I fully expect starship upper stages to go through at least a day of inspection and TPS refurb between flights for the foreseeable future, barring some yet unseen improvement in the system. That would still result in the largest launch vehicle also being the most rapidly reusable and likely the least expensive way to reach orbit and beyond.
Dead end seems like a bold claim to make at this point, considering that they have managed to make a large amount of progress without even having any really nice samples from a recovered ship. Plus, even if they lose a few tiles, there isn’t any obvious reason that they couldn’t automate inspection and replacement, especially if every flight gives them 40k new examples of a broken tile versus a fine tile. That just wasn’t an option for most of the shuttles life, or even an option that NASA would have much incentive to pursue. IDK, we’ll see, even if they can’t immediately get to full rapid reusability, as in a turn around time measured in hours, having it measured in days could still mean a huge boost in cadence, which will give them plenty of opportunities to try new solutions
Starship’s original design had tiny holes in the stainless outer skin that would push out an ablative oil on re-entry. I thought that was a cool idea, too bad they scrapped it for traditional heat tiles before doing any real world tests.
IIRC the ability to do that was one of the primary reasons stainless steel was chosen
Sigh, [infamous SpaceX lapdog Eric Berger](https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/1v2fgnf/comment/oyuxgcc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) writing another SpaceX stock pump– Sorry what? Oh, uhhhh, [hysterical woke „journalist“ Eric Berger](https://x.com/raikohtech/status/2081777331614646751?s=20) smearing tech legend Musk again!
It is slowly but surely turning into a refurbishment hell like the space shuttle compared to the BFR we initially saw.
Every launch has some engine issue. When it does gets going, the heat tiles will probably have to checked before each launch. This also has „wings“ like space shuttle where heat concentrates.
The rapid reuse might never happen tbh.
Just put pineapple skin on them
The skepticism is nothing new.
But it’s self-contradictory: experts are skeptical BUT haven’t worked on this challenge in years… maybe working on it changes this.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|——-|———|—|
|[BFR](/r/Space/comments/1v8dxzy/stub/p05ek51 „Last usage“)|Big Falcon Rocket (2018 rebiggened edition)|
| |Yes, the F stands for something else; no, you’re not the first to notice|
|[BO](/r/Space/comments/1v8dxzy/stub/p05jp1c „Last usage“)|Blue Origin (*Bezos Rocketry*)|
|CST|(Boeing) Crew Space Transportation capsules|
| |Central Standard Time (UTC-6)|
|[GAO](/r/Space/comments/1v8dxzy/stub/p05jp1c „Last usage“)|(US) Government Accountability Office|
|[HLS](/r/Space/comments/1v8dxzy/stub/p05jp1c „Last usage“)|[Human Landing System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_System) (Artemis)|
|[JPL](/r/Space/comments/1v8dxzy/stub/p05fmtw „Last usage“)|Jet Propulsion Lab, California|
|[LEO](/r/Space/comments/1v8dxzy/stub/p066lin „Last usage“)|Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)|
| |Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)|
|[SLS](/r/Space/comments/1v8dxzy/stub/p05p8ej „Last usage“)|Space Launch System heavy-lift|
|[STS](/r/Space/comments/1v8dxzy/stub/p05q7nk „Last usage“)|Space Transportation System (*Shuttle*)|
|[TPS](/r/Space/comments/1v8dxzy/stub/p065knd „Last usage“)|Thermal Protection System for a spacecraft (on the Falcon 9 first stage, the engine „Dance floor“)|
|Jargon|Definition|
|——-|———|—|
|[Starliner](/r/Space/comments/1v8dxzy/stub/p05f18a „Last usage“)|Boeing commercial crew capsule [CST-100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CST-100_Starliner)|
|[ablative](/r/Space/comments/1v8dxzy/stub/p05zf20 „Last usage“)|Material which is intentionally destroyed in use (for example, heatshields which burn away to dissipate heat)|
|[cryogenic](/r/Space/comments/1v8dxzy/stub/p05ldma „Last usage“)|Very low temperature fluid; materials that would be gaseous at room temperature/pressure|
| |(In re: rocket fuel) Often synonymous with hydrolox|
|hydrolox|Portmanteau: liquid hydrogen fuel, liquid oxygen oxidizer|
|[retropropulsion](/r/Space/comments/1v8dxzy/stub/p05zmjx „Last usage“)|Thrust in the opposite direction to current motion, reducing speed|
Decronym is now also available on Lemmy! Requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.
—————-
^([Thread #12598 for this sub, first seen 27th Jul 2026, 22:41])
^[[FAQ]](http://decronym.xyz/) [^([Full list])](http://decronym.xyz/acronyms/Space) [^[Contact]](https://hachyderm.io/@Two9A) [^([Source code])](https://gistdotgithubdotcom/Two9A/1d976f9b7441694162c8)
If we funded NASA like we fund the military industrial complex, we would be colonizing Mars already.
The things NASA has accomplished are incredible and that’s on a razor thin budget that gets cut almost every year.
There are some key lines to inspect.
„SpaceX’s current approach may not get Starship to its ultimate goal“
Space X is making it fly, and then making it good. They have been flying with totally different patterns on the heat shield every launch and flight 13 is the first time they did the soft splashdown to inspect the heat tiles on Starship. I wouldn’t expect their „current approach“ to be sufficient for their end goal. A lot will have to change with Starship before they can do ultra rapid reusability. There are a lot of things that they have to get right before that issue becomes a priority.
Then we get the one single quote from their named expert: „Starship’s current thermal protection system is a dead-end for all missions that require full and rapid reusability,”
When he says current, does the mean the materials, technology, approach, or what? When he says today, does he mean Flight 13? They dont continue with these threads, they just go on to mention that Elon says it is going to be hard. And then mention that „The independent industry experts said they believe that SpaceX’s approach to a modern thermal protection systems represents a good “incremental” step forward“
There isnt really a lot of meat to this story. It seems to imply their entire direction is a „dead end“ but the rest of the article is a lot of wishy washy general statements.
Nobody is saying that Starship doesn’t have a long road ahead, but this feels like a bait-y headline. We have one expert, named, and on the record, saying one quote without specifics calling it a dead end… and then the title says „expertS“ which is plural.
you mean the snake oil salesman that said he would have humans on mars by 2011 was massively overestimating what was possible??? who could have seen this coming
Get some pineapple skin, cut it up.
Slap ot on
Idiots dropping funding of NASA and university core research so enjoy watering your heatshields with left over brawndo from irrigation of the crops.
In all seriousness, publically funded research in US enabled a great majority today’s technology. Last firewall if you view the world as a competitive market.
Am I the only one thinking that when it comes to manned missions, they’re going to want to strap a massive (20 man+) capsule on the top of these things for re-entry?
Even if it eventually has the landing success rate of Falcon 9 (98-99%), you’re looking at the life expectancy of a wing suit base jumper.
What point is he saying in this article exactly? Yes SpaceX isn’t going to settle on having to closely inspect tens of thousands of heat shields as a permanent solution…. Is he saying that heat shield technology will never get to a point where the rockets can be profitably reusable after re-entry?
Not sure I buy that. Shuttle had huge problems with its shield, but it’s looking like the stainless body + better (but not perfect) tile adhesion might be working.
To add to the generalized bitching… I’m not convinced it matters if starship can turnaround FAST; it needs to do so with cost controls that leave refurb cheaper than a new vehicle.
What does NASA have to do with Starship’s heat shield?
Maybe there is some ablative material that can be sprayed onto the tiles before each flight. They just need to be able the handle the minimum envelope demands of a single re-entry with ablative failure modes.
Is it a problem if it dissolves in sea water?
Spacex developed PICAX for the dragon capsule which was an improvement on the state of the art PICA material developed by NASA (phenolic impregnated carbon ablator)
Source: username checks out.
Uh oh, private capital failing at something, time to blame the government.
They probably need to break out the electromagnetic forcefield to bounce the hot plasme away from the spacecraft.
What are the panels even made of
Yeah it’s a hard problem, but NASA hasn’t worked on this since the 90s. We’ve seen the heat shield on starship make massive progress in the last two years
Seems like these space companies and organizations have to stop wasting their time with these tiles and simply develop a material than can be reused infinitely with little to no maintenance and at a cheap price point.
I don’t know why they don’t just do that smh