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A comment on Starship's Fourth Flight Test: Window Opens 07:00 AM Central Time.

Re:Starship's Fourth Flight Test: Window Opens 07:00 AM Cent... by josephwegner on Thursday June 06, 2024 @09:07AM (#40596925)
Curious - I was watching the live stream, and noticed as the ship's rockets were on, there were a bunch of these "floaters" in the view.

https://imgur.com/a/OrZTYxP

I know nearly nothing about rocketry, so ELI5 (or give me a wikipedia link!)... anyone know what those floaters are? Is it some byproduct of the fuel? An artifact of the cameras? An illusion coming through the haze of the burning rocket?

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Re:Starship's Fourth Flight Test: Window Opens 07:00 AM Cent... by pclmulqdq on Thursday June 06, 2024 @10:16AM (#40597682)
I'm sort of surprised nobody has mentioned this. The ice is all gone at this altitude, and nothing seems to have started falling apart yet.

Those might be satellites reflecting the light from the engines.

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Re:Starship's Fourth Flight Test: Window Opens 07:00 AM Cent... by MPSimmons on Thursday June 06, 2024 @01:36PM (#40600178)
Ice is formed by vents on the rocket itself, too.
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Re:Starship's Fourth Flight Test: Window Opens 07:00 AM Cent... by krunck on Thursday June 06, 2024 @09:09AM (#40596958)
Chunks of ice falling off the sides of the ship where the cryogenic fuel caused atmospheric water to freeze onto it.
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Re:Starship's Fourth Flight Test: Window Opens 07:00 AM Cent... by openmarmot on Thursday June 06, 2024 @09:10AM (#40596963)
that is mostly ice. The propellent is super chilled so ice forms on the whole outside of the rocket, and then comes off during the launch and in flight.

You can also see this on the Atlas 5 + starliner launch from yesterday to a lesser degree

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Re:Starship's Fourth Flight Test: Window Opens 07:00 AM Cent... by ta1243 on Thursday June 06, 2024 @09:09AM (#40596956)
Ice of some sort
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Re:Starship's Fourth Flight Test: Window Opens 07:00 AM Cent... by verticalscaler on Thursday June 06, 2024 @09:09AM (#40596952)
Heat tiles and or ice falling off
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