00:00Behind it, there's some of those great views from Starlink giving us views of Starship's onboard videos.
00:10And so we're hoping that the Starlink onboard will let us, just like we're seeing these videos now,
00:15see through that plasma field by maintaining a continuous communication lock with the satellites on orbit
00:21through the wake that Starship leaves behind.
00:24Now this is only the second time that we're testing Starlink during re-entry.
00:28So even though we do have these great visuals now, don't be surprised if we manage to get some signal hiccups through.
00:35We're still learning about what that wake will actually look like in practice
00:38and whether we're able to get that live continuous high-speed data during re-entry.
00:47Yeah, that's right.
00:48And one of the really primary reasons we want to use Starlink is to just gather as much data as possible.
00:54It's been said the data is the payload on one of these flights where we're putting this flight hardware
01:01in a real flight environment, trying to learn about it as much as possible.
01:06Re-entry is going to be a really critical phase of flight.
01:09We really want to know how the ship's going to perform, especially that heat shield,
01:14as we're going through the hypersonic re-entry.
01:16So if something were to go wrong during this re-entry,
01:19we want as many paths as possible to collect that information, that data,
01:24just to, again, just continually feed back into the Starship program
01:29to make each flight more reliable, more successful.
01:32Acquisition of single, Mauritius.
01:33Now, if Starship manages to make it all the way through re-entry,
01:46we'll collect valuable data on Starship flying through the Earth's atmosphere
01:49at hypersonic speeds, meaning more than five, or at this point,
01:54we'll be more than five times the speed of sound.
01:56Now, we're watching these live views, HD views by the looks of it,
02:03thanks to Starlink.
02:04You can see that the flaps there on the ship might be actuating.
02:14Certainly some incredible visions of planet Earth behind Starship.
02:21Now, we've already validated Starship's ability to fly
02:24and land at subsonic speeds.
02:28You might recall those suborbital flights from a few years ago,
02:31and we can see those flaps there.
02:36So getting data on aspects like heating and control
02:39while traveling way faster than we did before
02:42is going to be critical to eventually bringing Starships back from space
02:45for rapid reuse.
02:47So I mentioned those flaps.
02:48That's one of the things that enables Starship to help control itself
02:53and survive the heat of re-entry,
02:56which, like we said before,
02:57we're expecting that re-entry to occur around T plus 49 minutes.
03:01So we're getting pretty close here.
03:03And what you're seeing here,
03:04it looks like the vehicle is sort of moving back and forth.
03:07Part of what you're also seeing is one of the cameras,
03:10this onboard view that we have,
03:11is on the end of a flap.
03:13Starship has front flaps and rear flaps in the vehicle.
03:17So we've got four of those.
03:19And, oh man, we can see the heating on those flaps
03:22as we're starting to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
03:24This is where the Earth's atmosphere is doing the work to slow us down.
03:28Now, like we said, this plasma field is, wow, what a view.
03:34We hope to maintain these views throughout.
03:37Starship is so big that we're hoping that the plasma field
03:40doesn't entirely blanket the entire vehicle.
03:44Right now, it is not.
03:46The Starlinks are still...
03:46Views brought to you by Starlink.
03:48Yeah, the Starlinks are still communicating
03:50and still capturing the data and the video that we see here.
03:54I mean, Shiva, this is just absolutely incredible views.
03:57We've never seen anything like this before.
03:59This is the biggest flying object ever in space.
04:02Absolutely, Kate.
04:03And it's important to note,
04:05the ascent burn that we did was to get us to orbital velocities,
04:10even though we were on a nearly orbital trajectory.
04:13So the heating and the loads that Starship is going through right now
04:17are what it would be getting
04:19if it were recovering from an orbital mission.
04:22And just the fact that we have views through entry,
04:24this is incredible.
04:25Yeah.
04:25Again, this is the furthest and fastest
04:28that Starship has ever flown.
04:33And you can definitely tell by the crowd here in Hawthorne.
04:39The heat shield tiles doing their work.
04:41We talked about it earlier.
04:43Up to 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit
04:46that those heat shield tiles are dissipating
04:48as we are reentering.
04:50Yeah, now this was one of the critical
04:53or rather the key mission objectives
04:56that we were hoping to hit today.
04:58We have never, like I said before,
04:59this is the fastest and furthest that Starship has ever flown.
05:02So this is the first time
05:03that we're getting to collect this reentry data
05:06and understand how these 18,000 hexagonal heat shield tiles
05:10are working together to protect the belly of Starship
05:14as it reenters the Earth's atmosphere.
05:17Once again, the atmosphere is doing us a big favor here.
05:20The atmosphere is actually doing us a huge favor here
05:26by acting as a braking system for Starship
05:29as it reenters the atmosphere.
05:31And that's part of the reason why the flaps are so important.
05:34We're using the body of Starship
05:36and the drag from the atmosphere
05:38to slow us down from orbital speed.
05:40But you want the vehicle to remain stable.
05:43You want those heat shield tiles pointed down
05:46so they can absorb the heat of the Earth's atmosphere.
05:50And so that's the purpose that they are serving
05:53during the hypersonic phase
05:55and then again during the subsonic phase.
05:57Absolutely.
05:57So like we said, these views are being provided
06:01by a couple of Starlink terminals
06:03that are positioned on Starship itself.
06:06As that plasma builds,
06:08we're hoping that we can bring these views back to you.
06:11But you can see the telemetry there
06:13on the right-hand side of your screen.
06:15If you watch closely,
06:16you can see the speed decelerating.
06:18Again, that's the friction of the atmosphere
06:21resulting in this plasma field,
06:23excuse me, the blanket
06:24that is potentially blocking
06:27the Starlink terminals right now.
06:29So we'll bring those views back to you if we get them.
06:31But right now, for those of you
06:32that have recently joined,
06:34Starship is currently re-entering Earth's atmosphere.
06:38This is super exciting
06:39because it's the furthest and fastest
06:41that Starship has ever flown.
06:43It's just absolutely incredible.
06:45Major test milestone,
06:46something we wanted to accomplish on flight 2,
06:48getting to it today.
06:49So just awesome.
06:52Now, we actually have some heat shields here.
06:54So these are what's doing all the work
06:57on Starship right now.
06:59There are 18,000 hexagonal heat shields like these.
07:03So this one that I have is flat.
07:06Like, this is what would be positioned
07:07on the flaps of Starship,
07:09whereas Shiva has something a little different.
07:11Yeah, the one I have would be
07:13on the curved surfaces of Starship.
07:15I'll just put it in frame here.
07:16So we've got these attached
07:18at various points around the vehicle.
07:20Like you said, Kate,
07:2118,000 of these tiles are around,
07:23and they're doing the work
07:24to make sure that the structure of the vehicle
07:27doesn't carry all that thermal load
07:28so we can recover the vehicles eventually
07:31and get to rapid reuse on them.
07:33They're really lightweight.
07:35They sound a little different
07:37than I would have expected them to,
07:38but they are ceramic.
07:40And these are what's helping Starship
07:43survive through this period of entry.
07:46We're not sure how far we're going to make it.
07:49Again, this is the furthest
07:50that we've gotten in our test flight,
07:52but the further we fly,
07:53the more data that we can get,
07:55and that's ultimately the measure of success here,
07:58which, I mean, I think today
07:59has been a huge success
08:01given where we've gone
08:03and how much further we've gotten
08:04with both the booster and Starship.
08:07and how much faster we can get
08:10there.
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