Watch SpaceX's Starship Super Heavy booster splash down in this epic video

[Admin]

The huge first stage of Spacex's Starship megarocket came back to Earth as planned during the vehicle's June 6 test flight, and cameras recorded the dramatic action.

Watch SpaceX's Starship Super Heavy booster splash down in this epic video : Read more

 

[Torbjorn Larsson]

one of its flaps nearly burned through from frictional heating,

The burn through at the flap hinges were not caused by hinge (or Ship) frictional heating - "When two bodies pass over each other an force opposing the motion of the two bodies is produced called friction. " It was due to plasma* leakage, and affected two out of four flaps according to SpaceX as they looked at the telemetry data. We just happened to see the worst affected flap on camera.

*)Plasma generation comes from bodies impacting the atmosphere and causing pressure buildup and hence compressive heating. Less like a car skid and more like a Diesel engine.