4

During SpaceX testflight on IFT3, Starship aka S28 was spinning around its axis. It was very visible in the live stream and also concerning. During reentry its heatshield was facing the wrong way because of the spin, possibly causing it to burn up. Was it out of control or was it a normal spin?

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-3

The Rocket fan
  • 5,580
  • 3
  • 26
  • 62
hotdog
  • 41
  • 2
  • 4
    Pretty sure it was out of control. There was a lot of gas expulsion right after engine cutoff. It might've been an intentional fuel dump but I thought there were a lot of puffs of what looked like control thruster fire during that -- I think either a thruster valve stuck open and the computer was firing other thrusters to try to counter it until it fully ran out of fuel, or the fuel dump itself was inducing a rotation that had the same effect. – Darth Pseudonym Mar 15 '24 at 14:11

0 Answers0