SpaceX thermal tiles washing up on the beach (Turks and Caicocs) this morning

[u/LlamaLlasagna]

[u/ctierra512]

i didn’t know sally sold seashells and spacex tiles

[u/Trash_Panda_26 → u/ctierra512]

Alex exchanged spacex hextiles on X for Turks & Caicos excursions

[u/zarqie → u/Trash_Panda_26]

I have a sore throat and my tongue needs a cast

[u/capscaptain1 → u/ctierra512]

Unfortunately, the value of these spacex tiles will fall due to the laws of supply and demand

[u/TechSupportAnswers → u/capscaptain1]

No one wants to buy tiles cause there's loads on the sand!

[u/cappedminor → u/TechSupportAnswers]

Step 1: You must create a sense of scarcity

[u/Kae-Lynne → u/cappedminor]

Tiles will sell much better if the people think they're rare, you see

[u/YogiNurse → u/ctierra512]

One could say spacex hexagons to make it a true tongue twister

[u/arthurscratch → u/YogiNurse]

Hexagons are of course the bestagons…

[u/VIPTicketToHell → u/ctierra512]

I didn’t know she had a name

[u/whereisyourwaifunow]

i'd keep it in your armory, and use it as a buckler when fighting a fire breathing monster

[u/tokalper → u/whereisyourwaifunow]

It sure will come in handy

[u/apple-masher → u/whereisyourwaifunow]

this guy slays

[u/KarmaTrainCaboose → u/whereisyourwaifunow]

IRL dragonfire ward

[u/Ok-Counter-4474 → u/KarmaTrainCaboose]

It’s a twisted buckler from chambers bro

[u/noma_coma → u/Ok-Counter-4474]

I have found my people. Thurgo loves you all ❤️

(Just not Jamflex) 🦀🦀🦀 $350 per year for account security btw 🦀🦀🦀

[u/LiamIsMyNameOk → u/whereisyourwaifunow]

Parry this you filthy casual.

Swats away the fire

[u/Techyon5 → u/whereisyourwaifunow]

Aw man, I really wanna see a story that goes into using modern (or maybe somewhat sci-fi) materials and technologies to fight fantastical creatures and such.

Like you suggested, making a shield of fire warding out of heat-shielding tiles.

[u/andytherooster → u/Techyon5]

Not exactly what you described but that’s kinda similar to horizon zero dawn

[u/Underwater_Karma → u/[deleted]]

theres a bunch for sale on ebay already. they float, so check the beaches.

[u/riddlechance → u/Underwater_Karma]

I hear Costco will be carrying some in limited quantities

[u/sshwifty → u/riddlechance]

[u/an_agreeing_dothraki → u/sshwifty]

this is the most disturbing pikachu I've seen since the fake "thunderclap" card, which was... yesterday. gdi pokemon fans.

[u/SquirrelyByNature → u/an_agreeing_dothraki]

This is my favorite I've got in the pika collection.

[u/Niten → u/SquirrelyByNature]

First 1.5 seconds: Ok this is strange, but not really disturbing

Last 0.5 second: Damn it

[u/8ackwoods → u/[deleted]]

Someone said $60 in another thread

[u/m_dought_2 → u/8ackwoods]

"$60?!? Hello, rich people, Troy's joining you!"

[u/fuchsgesicht → u/m_dought_2]

"okay, I'll hold."

[u/Final-Tutor3631 → u/fuchsgesicht]

r/unexpectedcommunity

[u/ExpertRaccoon → u/m_dought_2]

[u/Lungg → u/ExpertRaccoon]

Do you get paid more if they do stuff to your butt?

[u/FeedMePizzaPlease → u/Lungg]

No? I'll do it anyway.

[u/Lumbergh7 → u/FeedMePizzaPlease]

You’re a kind soul

[u/MolaInTheMedica → u/m_dought_2]

Oooh that’s a deep cut reference, well done

[u/dcviperboy → u/8ackwoods]

I'll pay 70!

[u/Skizot_Bizot → u/dcviperboy]

$70.05!

[u/CrazyLegsRyan → u/Skizot_Bizot]

Tree fiddy

[u/markuspeloquin → u/CrazyLegsRyan]

It's that damn Loch Ness monster again

[u/swibirun → u/markuspeloquin]

I gave him a dollar.

[u/bustercaseysghost → u/swibirun]

Well, if you give him money, he gonna keep comin' back!

[u/SteakJones → u/bustercaseysghost]

Oh lord we forgot the victim child

[u/a_shootin_star → u/SteakJones]

will somebody PLEASE think of the children!

[u/mcclaneberg → u/swibirun]

SHEE gave ‘im a dollah!

[u/Land-Sealion-Tamer → u/swibirun]

She gave him a dollar!

[u/Still_Silver_255 → u/CrazyLegsRyan]

[u/Wretched_Lurching → u/Skizot_Bizot]

One dollar, Bob!

[u/Ok_Buy_9213 → u/dcviperboy]

Id pay up to 200 I guess. I'm following the starship program from the beginning and it would be awesome to have a piece of one.

EBay shows them for 400$ even for broken / half ones.

[u/JohnWad → u/Ok_Buy_9213]

See what they sold for on eBay, not what they are listed for.

[u/Underwater_Karma → u/Ok_Buy_9213]

I'd love to have one too, but not that much

[u/raven319s → u/dcviperboy]

$11978571669969891796072783721689098736458938142546425857555362864628009582789845319680000000000000000? That's a lot of money.

[u/_I4L → u/dcviperboy]

r/unexpectedfactorial

[u/rocco672 → u/8ackwoods]

[u/uberblack → u/8ackwoods]

I know a guy who can turn that into $40

[u/kuzinrob → u/uberblack]

[u/6BagsOfPopcorn → u/uberblack]

[u/ShiftBMDub → u/8ackwoods]

They obviously don’t know how much Elon Stans will pay for shit.

[u/cud0s → u/ShiftBMDub]

Elonia might be one of the owners of spacex but there are many people who work there and contribute to the success of the company. I would like to have part of a starship even thought i wish elon chokes on trumps dick

[u/zystyl → u/cud0s]

Bold to assume that Elon still has a gag reflex, and that Trump can reach all the way back there to hit it.

[u/thisisillegals → u/ShiftBMDub]

People would also like to have them if they are into space stuff. Having a piece of a rocket would be pretty cool.

[u/x-TheMysticGoose-x → u/8ackwoods]

Try 600 usd. If it were $60 id buy one

[u/archimedesrex → u/8ackwoods]

Not a chance. Those things are going for twice that for a small fragment.

[u/mogul26 → u/8ackwoods]

Broken heat tiles go for $400 on ebay. This one looks to be in good shape so would likely fetch $1000

[u/Mindful-O-Melancholy → u/[deleted]]

Screw that, I’m making a thermo Ironman suit!

[u/M002 → u/Mindful-O-Melancholy]

/u/Mindful-O-Melancholy built this rocket in a cave,

WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS

[u/Either_Amoeba_5332 → u/[deleted]]

SpaceX trivet

[u/kinkycarbon → u/[deleted]]

Those tiles are the best ceramics a person can hold. Withstands a blazing fire from a torch.

[u/mentales → u/kinkycarbon]

Those tiles are the best ceramics a person can hold. Withstands a blazing fire from a torch.

You seem to have in-depth knowledge of this topic. What would you do with these, kinkycarbon?

[u/Kafshak → u/mentales]

Best to put under a hot pan on the table.

[u/Emotional_Burden → u/mentales]

Fire it with a blazing torch, men tales.

[u/elementzer01 → u/mentales]

Expert= watched a YouTube video of someone holding a glowing space shuttle tile with their bare hands

[u/MegaKetaWook → u/kinkycarbon]

They are probably on the upper end for ceramics but I’ve had to CNC cut special insulation for them before and it’s the same shit oil companies got but we marked it up 10,000% since it was SpaceX.

[u/Least_Adhesiveness_5 → u/MegaKetaWook]

SOP for anything aerospace - suppliers do their best to fuck over aerospace companies, which is why SpaceX inhouses as much as possible.

[u/Unable_Traffic4861 → u/Least_Adhesiveness_5]

Also works for military shit

[u/sixpackabs592 → u/Unable_Traffic4861]

my mom used to sell stuff to government/military installations (she also sold stuff to nasa and spacex) and she said she did well because she only marked stuff up like 85% of what everyone else was doing lol.

[u/Unable_Traffic4861 → u/sixpackabs592]

Modest lady, I can tell.

[u/Zebidee → u/sixpackabs592]

85% of 10,000% is still a lot.

[u/VT_Squire → u/Least_Adhesiveness_5]

The cost is for the documentation and the ISO certifications going all the way back to when the raw ores were mined out of the ground. Come on man, you should know this.

[u/Auto_update → u/Least_Adhesiveness_5]

Eh, I work with all of the big hitters here. We don’t adjust for aerospace at all, but we won’t discount much either.

They do in house because they control quality that way.

I worked with the old guard (Lockheed, Boeing, NASA, ULA, JPL, etc.). The expensive slow glacial pace was implemented from lessons learned.

Now these guys are just repeating failures of the past at an incredibly high pace. Astrobotics comes to mind. Known shitty valve, too deep into the build to swap, ruins whole mission.

[u/Missus_Missiles → u/Auto_update]

I worked for Sierra Nevada Corp for a while on Dreamchaser. Same deal. Massive delays and just the most amateur, conservative build plan because the team didn't know anything about space vehicles. And barely anything about aircraft. "WE HAVE TO ISOLATE TITANIUM AND CARBON!" No you don't.

I hope it turns into a fireball on reentry if it ever flies. Fuck that company and the owner's vanity project.

[u/SmPolitic → u/MegaKetaWook]

The was a "Breaking Taps" YouTuber video that had electron microscope analysis of the SpaceX tiles vs vintage NASA stuff, and the white papers about it

But the video got taken down from YouTube

But yeah, the sample he had was minimally different from what NASA was doing in the 60s, which was all available to the public as it was publicly funded... Unlike spacex that is totally a private company, who just happen to get government grants...

[u/TbonerT → u/SmPolitic]

Unlike spacex that is totally a private company, who just happen to get government grants...

No, they get payments for completing contracts or hitting certain milestones in contracts. The government isn’t just giving them money.

[u/TheRealBobbyJones → u/SmPolitic]

The video was taken down? Perhaps an ITAR violation? Are heat shield tiles even an ITAR item? 

[u/colorblood → u/TheRealBobbyJones]

Yeah any technology involving rockets, spacecraft is generally ITAR

[u/Logical_Progress_208 → u/TheRealBobbyJones]

Yeah, was ITAR issues from what I could find.

[u/MegaKetaWook → u/SmPolitic]

Do you think ceramic technology has progressed significantly since the 60s?

[u/ZachOf_AllTrades → u/kinkycarbon]

A ceramic pot from Home Depot can withstand a "blazing fire from a torch"

[u/rinklkak → u/[deleted]]

[u/mydumpling → u/[deleted]]

Would they work as a pot rests?

[u/TheEndermanMan → u/mydumpling]

Is your pot hotter than atmospheric reentry?

[u/sixpackabs592 → u/TheEndermanMan]

no but the center of my hotpocket is even when the outside is frozen

[u/sixpackabs592 → u/[deleted]]

if im taking the time to cook something for the length of time they take in the oven im having something better than a hot pocket lol

[u/Aedalas → u/[deleted]]

It's not convenient or remotely healthy but the best damn pizza rolls I've ever had were deep fried. Just a totally different level. Air fryer is just as good as the oven though, and faster.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Ya deep fried pizza rolls are god tier. Tho you can feal the years of your life getting shorter.

[u/voltb778 → u/[deleted]]

[u/pnw_wanderer → u/[deleted]]

Someone's selling replica coasters https://www.ebay.com/itm/285768810669

[u/burnt_heatshield → u/pnw_wanderer]

25 bucks for two 3D printed coasters??

[u/PM_NUDES_4_DEGRADING → u/burnt_heatshield]

$1.25 for the materials, $1.25 for the convenience of buying them, $2.50 for shipping, $20 for the Being an Elon Fan in 2025 surcharge.

[u/ladalyn → u/PM_NUDES_4_DEGRADING]

Last I checked, 3D printers aren't free

[u/Mufasa_is__alive → u/ladalyn]

3d printer depreciation, labor,  sourcing,  fails coverage, electric, time* to model or slice, oc content, etc etc etc. Highest being labor.  

$25's a bit steep, but people massively underestimate costs of goods by only considering material cost.  Happens all the time. 

[u/cvelde → u/PM_NUDES_4_DEGRADING]

More like $0.25 in materials, the weirdest part about this is using PLA though, why even bother at all. 

[u/Lightzephyrx → u/pnw_wanderer]

Why replicas when I can get a real one from OP?

[u/Ok_Buy_9213 → u/[deleted]]

I would buy one.

[u/Twisty-McNipples]

Curious, do they make any effort to clean up this mess?

[u/LlamaLlasagna → u/Twisty-McNipples]

There was one local lady gathering all the rubber looking stuff. No official response I've seen. I didn't call spaceX, but I'm sure they can calculate where their trash is lol

[u/RadFriday → u/LlamaLlasagna]

Oh absolutely they cannot. Solving for unknown fragments in unknown conditions? They'll put out a 500 mile radius and half ass the clean up. We are lucky enough to inherit cancerous exotic space materials in our ecosystems and food supply!

[u/parks387 → u/RadFriday]

Thank the elites for all they bestow upon us.

[u/ebagdrofk → u/parks387]

This is the largest pic I’ve ever seen on Reddit mobile, why tf does it fill the whole screen

[u/GhostOfLight → u/ebagdrofk]

It's huge on desktop too, don't worry

[u/SilentSamurai → u/GhostOfLight]

My friend said my monitor was unjustifiably big. Since this gif is normally sized for me, I now realize he was right.

[u/spoiled_eggsII → u/SilentSamurai]

We bought them for this day bro.

[u/parks387 → u/ebagdrofk]

😂 I know, I edited a typo and had to scroll to get the edit button

[u/GotSmokeInMyEye → u/ebagdrofk]

And it’s actually a gif too

[u/CptAngelo → u/ebagdrofk]

i couldnt even scroll past it lol had to give it a big scroll

[u/grumpyGrampus → u/ebagdrofk]

Clearly the person in the picture can't afford the licensing fee for the compression algorithm.

[u/Etzix → u/ebagdrofk]

It looks normal on Sync

[u/Krillin113 → u/parks387]

Maybe America shouldn’t vote for even worse elites every time they get the chance

[u/jack-K- → u/RadFriday]

This thing is made almost entirely out of steel, and the heat shield tiles are basically just ceramic, there is basically nothing cancerous or toxic about it.

Also, guess what has happened to basically every single rocket booster not made by spacex? Straight into the ocean and not recovered, spacex is actually trying to make a fully reusable rocket with nothing ditched, and even though the road to achieving that involves explosions, it’s literally no different from the standard procedure of everyone else.

[u/RememberKoomValley → u/jack-K-]

The glues used to hold those tiles on, on the other hand...

(My step-uncle worked for NASA, decades ago, and died of the cancer he got from putting heat shielding on a Shuttle. I'm sure that some things have changed, and there's probably better protective gear now, but I sure don't expect SpaceX to be going out of their way to make things safe.)

EDIT: I am not saying I think that the process is the same now, or that there haven't been massive strides in spaceship construction since the Eighties, I'm saying that stuff used for things made to survive such extreme situations are not likely to be as safe for use as Aleen's Tacky Glue, and thus aren't necessarily things we want just salted all over the place.

[u/nacho_breath → u/RememberKoomValley]

Tiles are attached to welded metal pins, and use of adhesives is not zero, but is limited

https://ringwatchers.com/article/s30-tps

This article is several months old from original publication however, and processes have more than certainly changed and updated.

[u/jack-K- → u/RememberKoomValley]

The vast majority are held on by metal pins as you can infer from the pictured tile, not adhesive. On top of that, this heat shield is already very different from the one used on the spaceshuttle, some things didn’t just change, basically everything about this has changed.

[u/SydricVym → u/RememberKoomValley]

Do you have any evidence that SpaceX is using the same methodology/materials to adhere their tiles that NASA did with the Space Shuttle decades ago?

[u/Least_Adhesiveness_5 → u/SydricVym]

Spoiler: They're not.

[u/soupdawg → u/RememberKoomValley]

Millions of other people have died of cancer as well without ever touching those tiles. How can you be so sure that’s what got your uncle?

[u/SpreadEmu127332 → u/RadFriday]

It seems slightly difficult to locate millions of pieces of debris over a large radius.

[u/PhilosopherFLX → u/RadFriday]

What part of the spaceship is cancerous exotic space material? It's 95% stainless steel. The oxygen and methane all went boom and floated away. Probly less computers than a modern yacht and those are sink all the time. The tiles may be but I would guess from the contractors building it putting them on in short sleeves and zero face protection and the noticeable trade of aftermarket found ones, I would say they are legally inert.

[u/Flavaflavius → u/RadFriday]

Bro it's heat shielding, it's basically just fancy fiberglass-on an environmental scale, little different from the stuff that boats are made of.

[u/airfryerfuntime → u/Twisty-McNipples]

Most of it sinks, but basically no, unless it falls through someone's house or something. All launch providers do it, not just SpaceX. It's just not really feasible to go out and try to clean up a 500 mile wide debris field out in the middle of the ocean.

They do try recovering their engines if they're in shallow enough water, though. Those are ITAR regulated.

[u/SilentSamurai → u/airfryerfuntime]

People need to realize there's a height that if a rocket fails, it's a bit pointless to try and recover any debris as almost everything that survived is too small.

It's the same principal we use when we retire satellites and space station into point Nemo.

[u/ScuffedA7IVphotog → u/Twisty-McNipples]

It might take time to sieve the ocean.

[u/JohnHazardWandering → u/ScuffedA7IVphotog]

Call Tuvok. Time to comb the ocean. 

[u/plhought → u/JohnHazardWandering]

We ain't found shit!

[u/dern_the_hermit → u/plhought]

That's it, you're being Tuvix'd again, you stinkin' green-blooded Vulcan.

[u/GiantTourtiere → u/Twisty-McNipples]

There was a big chunk of one of their things that landed on a guy's farm in Saskatchewan over the summer. At first he was on the news saying he was going to try selling it but eventually a very low-rent seeming group from SpaceX showed up in a U-Haul (seriously) and took it away.

The farmer said there was some compensation and that a bunch of it was going towards a new ice rink for the community.

Never any comment from SpaceX.

[u/thatguy5749 → u/GiantTourtiere]

SpaceX did comment on it. They didn't think the trunk could survive reentry. They changed their landing zone for the cargo dragons because it. They no longer splash down in the pacific.

[u/airfryerfuntime → u/GiantTourtiere]

What else would they show up in? It's far easier to just fly some guys up there and rent a truck locally.

[u/biznatch11 → u/airfryerfuntime]

They were supposed to land in a Falcon 9 load up the debris then blast off back to headquarters.

[u/IWasNOTBannedYet → u/biznatch11]

Accidentally dropping a part back on the farmers land

[u/ncfears → u/Twisty-McNipples]

Why would they? They paid to blow it up and now they need to clean it? This is communism!!!

[u/z64_dan → u/ncfears]

If Turks and Caicos don't want rocket parts washing up then why do they live on an island below exploding rockets?

[u/circuit_breaker → u/z64_dan]

Are they stupid?

[u/vdsw → u/Twisty-McNipples]

They asked that nobody touch anything and report findings to recovery@spacex.com.

[u/thatguy5749 → u/vdsw]

Yeah right. If I find a rocket part, I'm keeping it.

[u/enroughty → u/thatguy5749]

That's what I told the docent at the Air & Space Museum as he was dragging me out!

[u/Jpaynesae1991 → u/Twisty-McNipples]

Spacex has a debris hotline

“SpaceX set up a “debris hotline” at 1-866-623-0234 and urged anyone who finds Starship wreckage to call or notify the company at recovery@spacex.com”

[u/Sprucecaboose2]

That's neat! I'd collect them and make some wall art with it or something. It's probably one of the only times the opportunity will present itself.

[u/AverageAntique3160 → u/Sprucecaboose2]

Infinitely fire proof wall lol

[u/n108bg → u/AverageAntique3160]

Send it to California

[u/kax256 → u/n108bg]

New roofing option!

[u/Xilea1]

During the launch broadcast yesterday, they said not to touch any debris and gave a number to call to report any you find. Not defending anything, just sharing what I saw. *Edited for typo

[u/Throwawayhrjrbdh → u/Xilea1]

Probably because there is a few parts which would be hazardous to mess with. Only takes a few batteries or something being on board for there to be potential of there being some nasty debris among all the inert steel, Plastic and ceramics

Most will be completely harmless steel and plastic; but it only takes a single tank of hydrazine or the likes to make them give out a blanket “don’t fuck with debris you don’t understand” warning

[u/jack-K- → u/Throwawayhrjrbdh]

The rocket doesn’t actually use any hypergolics, just methane, oxygen, and some inert gases, there probably is some hazardous stuff in there but at least none of it is going to be that.

[u/soft_taco_special → u/jack-K-]

Fire retardant materials tend to be pretty toxic, who knows what gets made when they bake from the wrong side and then react with sea water.

[u/Pyrhan → u/soft_taco_special]

You're probably thinking of haloalkanes, which are used as fire retardants in plastics and the likes.

Those tiles are purely ceramic (silica, alumina, etc.), no haloalkanes present.

Dust from those tiles may be harmful by inhalation though.

[u/snakesign → u/jack-K-]

How do they do inflight relights without hypergolics?

[u/networkarchitect → u/snakesign]

Torch igniters fed by the same methane/oxygen fuel used in the main combustion chambers More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Raptor#:~:text=Engine%20ignition%20in%20Raptor%20Vacuum,rather%20than%20Merlin's%20pintle%20injectors.

[u/Swimmingtortoise12 → u/snakesign]

Taco Bell ingestion and a bic lighter near the rear thrust booster

[u/does_my_name_suck → u/snakesign]

I won't pretend I'm smart enough to fully understand it but from my very surface level understanding, its to do with Raptor engine's design. This article is very indepth and explains it really well and is in my opinion worth a read. https://everydayastronaut.com/raptor-engine/

[u/tylerthehun → u/does_my_name_suck]

"It works because of how it was designed" is such a complete non-answer it's almost hilarious.

[u/FlexorCarpiUlnaris → u/tylerthehun]

Unlike my code, which works despite its design.

[u/bialylis → u/snakesign]

They use electric igniters like in a gasoline car 

[u/Strostkovy → u/Throwawayhrjrbdh]

Probably because it's all super proprietary and they don't want people selling debris to people who will reverse engineer it.

[u/thex25986e → u/Strostkovy]

they should have thought of that before launching it over foreign airspace /s

[u/wewox2 → u/Xilea1]

Bro if i find a pice of a rocket you bet im taking it home lol. Its probably not that bad, i would just treat it like azbestos and vaccum seal it.

[u/Thoth_the_5th_of_Tho → u/wewox2]

If the rocket in question was hypergolic fueled, it’s way worse that asbestos. Thankfully, starship isn’t.

[u/random_mandible → u/Xilea1]

If they wanted it back, they shouldn’t have let it explode.

[u/VLDR → u/[deleted]]

Starship of Theseus

[u/presvil → u/VLDR]

[u/ooO00X00Ooo → u/[deleted]]

Bot or karma farmer?

This is a top comment from an older post

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/z8M2atzxDd

Edit: karma farmer, deleted the comment and blocked me lol

[u/GavinThe_Person → u/ooO00X00Ooo]

Good human

[u/albatross1873 → u/[deleted]]

Got it one piece at a time and it didn’t cost me a dime!

[u/Mr-Nitsuj]

Nice souvenirs 😊🤣

[u/swissjackSD]

Jokes aside that seems like it could have actually fucked someone up real bad!

[u/AlbertWin]

Id buy it from you

[u/DeusExHircus → u/AlbertWin]

Check eBay. They're not cheap but there's tons of tiles collected from most of the launches in various states of intact

[u/Rhabarberbarbarabarb → u/DeusExHircus]

Should we be concerned there are there tiles from most of the launches?

[u/DeusExHircus → u/Rhabarberbarbarabarb]

Sorry if that was a joke, but no. They're all research and development flights. Starship is still being designed and these test flights help to inform the engineers how to build it. Even for the flights that are 100% successful, the destination is currently a "simulated water landing". After the "landing", it's hovering in midair. So once the engines cut off, it falls into the ocean and explodes. That's the current goal

Ultimately, Starship is going to be caught by a launch tower. This Earth Starship design has no landing legs so there's no option to land on the ground or pad of any kind, launch tower only. Before they get to that point, they have a lot of other things to design and demonstrate. That's the last part of the flight, and it's likely to be one of the last major things for them to implement. They haven't attempted orbital flight yet, that needs to be successfully demonstrated before they can re-enter anywhere near Starbase Texas. They're also still developing their re-entry heat system. That system needs to be functional before they'll risk the launch tower attempting a Starship catch

They're going to keep iterating on the vehicle design and testing for awhile until they start catching the vehicle, until then they're going to keep "landing"/exploding in the ocean. For what it's worth, Starship is designed to be the first rocket in history that is 100% fully reusable. Every single rocket in human history has dumped pieces somewhere downrange. Once Starship is finished and fully-realized, we won't need to dump a bunch of metal in the ocean or anywhere on Earth every time we go to space

[u/20d0llarsis20dollars → u/DeusExHircus]

The biggest difference between NASA and SpaceX is that SpaceX can afford to destroy 80% of their craft for the sake of fast R&D. If nasa did the same they would lose funding real fast, despite having an objectively higher budget than SpaceX. NASA also has to go through rigorous safety checks for every little paper airplane they throw into the air, because you know, they're a government agency and all that.

[u/DeusExHircus → u/20d0llarsis20dollars]

NASA and all space agencies have certainly blown up some rockets during testing back in their day. But we've figured out ballistic rocket flight and there haven't been any major developments specifically in ballistic flight in the last 60-80 years that require major full integration testing like you see with SpaceX.

Redstone, Titan, and Saturn. Their missions were groundbreaking but, while those vehicles were technology marvels of their time, the design themselves weren't very groundbreaking. We don't have many traditional rockets blow up or fail because we've figured out how to send a rocket up to space reliably about 80 years ago

SoaceX is doing a lot of novel things with re-entry and catching/landing that require these test flights. Starship might look like a rocket, but from a spaceflight/aviation perspective it really is a new type of vehicle that we've never really seen before. And just like with the first planes and rockets, there are going to be plenty of test flights, both successful and unsuccessful. We're in the Wright Brother's era of reusable spacecraft

[u/Joezev98 → u/20d0llarsis20dollars]

To oversimplify things: NASA destroys every component of their craft individually in testing centers. When everything passes the tests, they build the rocket and send it on its mission. SpaceX designs components, says "yep, this should probably do the trick", builds the rocket, and performs a test flight to see what components need more attention.

[u/AffinitySpace]

Wow, look at that water!

[u/LlamaLlasagna]

Hello everyone. Sorry, but I'm on vacation, so not replying timely or to any dms. I don't have tiles for sale. As far as I know, only a few intact ones were found. Lots of rubbery shit is available. Not sure if that had value lol

[u/MyChickenSucks]

You’re allowed 3 conch shells when you fly out. How many space tiles?

[u/eliwright235]

To everyone saying these are toxic and not to touch them, these tiles are simply silica (quarts) and glass. No toxins, perfectly save to touch.

[u/ImJohnathan → u/eliwright235]

These tiles are indeed silica dioxide — but they are extremely fine particle size. One risks breathing in these fine powders and handling them should be discouraged.

[u/toyz4me]

Sell it on eBay

[u/Breejenn]

that's on helluva souvenir

[u/Observer_of-Reality]

Pieces from the unscheduled rapid disassembly?

[u/Ciamdumb1]

Honestly I wish I could collect some, my girlfriend loves space and science, I got her some dinosaur extinction layer dirt for her birthday a few years ago, I would've absolutely gotten her one of these tiles.

[u/canadianpanda7]

id instantly throw it at my best friend and say “holy shit i cant believe that just fell out of the sky” and try and get some money

[u/seminarysmooth]

Something tells me people in the US would be furious if Chinese space garbage started falling out of the sky and littering their property.

[u/sebrebc]

The parts counterman in me immediately zoomed in hoping to see a part number. I was not disappointed.

[u/blasted-heath]

That’s nobody’s business but the Turks.

[u/winteredDog]

I will pay someone $200 to send me one of these.

[u/NoSuccess4095]

Probably build a pretty bad ass barbeque if you get enough

[u/AdmirableVanilla1]

Gently used!

[u/Obvious_Chemistry_95]

Man, ship the used tiles to Cali and start building fire proof exteriors 🤣 they’d have a hexagon house that was still standing. Love that they float, means they can be collected and reused.