Yes, reuse of the heat shield has been the biggest question mark of the whole program and this is by far the best result of any launch so far. This is the first time it looks plausible that you could consider reusing the heat shield.
replyKeep in mind that all the prior flights had deliberately missing tiles specifically to test how bad the damage would be. This one had no missing tiles so it should have essentially no damage to the hull.
replyI think the worst damage on previous flights was often not related to the missing tiles.
replyI think it was due to voids in the hinge area causing localized plasma impingement and heating. The v3 design has a more continuous shape around the hinges.
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