Can Starship succeed where the space shuttle struggled?: As SpaceX readies its latest megarocket, engineer Stephen Whitmore explains why atmospheric reentry pushes materials to their limits.

The article focuses on the challenges of atmospheric reentry for reusable rockets, using SpaceX's Starship as a case study. Aerospace engineer Stephen Whitmore explains that reentry is difficult because the spacecraft must dissipate the immense kinetic energy accumulated in orbit, resulting in extreme temperatures of 5,000 to 7,000°C on the vehicle’s leading edges. To manage this heat, spacecraft use either heat storage materials, like the space shuttle’s silica tiles, or ablative materials that burn away to absorb heat. Whitmore notes that the shuttle’s thermal protection system was fragile and costly to maintain, while fully reusable rockets like Starship face trade-offs between payload capacity and fuel needed for controlled landings, with full reliability expected to take decades to achieve. [Extracted from the article]