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Ahead of the highly anticipated fourth Starship test flight that's currently due for a June 5th attempt, SpaceX chief Elon Musk has rebutted claims that his firm is subsidizing ride share and other missions with its Falcon 9 rockets. SpaceX came to the center of media attention after an interview given by a rival firm's CEO saw the executive claim that SpaceX was driving down competition in the industry by selling rocket launches below cost.
Musk's comments also mentioned a key problem with Starship, which might cause the second stage to fail its test objectives during the upcoming IFT-4.
Elon Musk Stresses That Flight Tests Are Key To Making Starship Reusable
Starship's third test flight, which took place earlier this year, awed viewers when the second stage spacecraft entered the Earth's atmosphere. During the atmospheric reentry, the rocket was engulfed in a bright red plasma that surrounds any vehicle that enters the atmosphere. Courtesy of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet services, viewers were treated to high definition views of the plasma.
However, the feed cut off soon after, and SpaceX later confirmed that it had lost the ship during reentry. The full Starship stack, made of the second-stage Starship stacked on the Super Heavy booster, is the world's largest rocket, and it has seen SpaceX design the second-stage heat shield from the ground up.
This heat shield is made of thousands of tiles manufactured in SpaceX's facilities. These tiles have been one of the most troublesome components of the rocket. Local media footage from SpaceX's facilities in Texas has seen the tiles regularly fall from the rocket while it is static, and several Starship test launches have also seen them dislodge during liftoff.
While he didn't go into the details of the Falcon 9's ride share launch costs, Musk refuted assertions that SpaceX was running them at a loss. 2024 has been the strongest year for Falcon 9 launches on record, as SpaceX has launched 56 missions so far. According to Musk, "none of the rideshare missions have lost money," to the best of his knowledge, implying that SpaceX is not subsidizing the ride share and other missions.
The rest of his comments focused on Starship's heat shield. Apart from being the world's largest rocket, Starship is also the first rocket in the world with a fully reusable second stage. Unlike the Falcon 9, this means that SpaceX does not have to build a new second stage (and engine) for each launch, and according to Musk, the "biggest remaining problem" to make Starship fully reusable is the heat shield.
This will "take a few kicks at the can to solve," believes the executive, and it will also require SpaceX to set up a brand new supply chain to make cheap components. A key constraint in designing the reusable heat shield is its weight, says Musk. Right now, SpaceX is not " not resilient to loss of a single tile in most places, as the secondary containment material will probably not survive," outlined Musk.
A key aspect of designing a heat shield is running situations to discover its weak points. These are regions where atmospheric reentry forces behave in unexpected ways and can cause charring. SpaceX's maiden Crew Dragon launch in 2020 saw the firm discover unforeseen heat shield damage. Additionally, Starship is not the first spacecraft for which SpaceX has investigated reusable heat shields as a SpaceX executive shared similar plans for the Drago in 2021.
SpaceX "will only discover the weak points by flying," outlined Musk, and his remarks blend in with the firm's objectives for Starship test flight 4. A key Starship IFT-4 test objective will be "controlled Starship reentry," and for this to executive flawlessly, the heat shield will have to endure all that the atmosphere throws at it.
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
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