Simply Wall St. Starship’s reentry would have then tested the redesigned heat shielding, some with active cooling, to help SpaceX identify places on the ship’s exterior where it can eliminate tiles ...
SpaceX is also flying rudimentary catch fittings on Starship to test their thermal performance on reentry. The ship will fly a more demanding trajectory during descent to probe the structural limits ...
Those upgrades include a smaller forward flap that’s located higher up on the rocket to reduce heating during its reentry. Starship’s propulsion system was upgraded to hold 25% more fuel ...