Evidently the joints on the flaps still need a little work into not letting gases through, but it seemed to still have enough actuation to keep the spacecraft stable until the engines took over for the landing burn.
Evidently the joints on the flaps still need a little work into not letting gases through, but it seemed to still have enough actuation to keep the spacecraft stable until the engines took over for the landing burn.
This really was awesome to watch live. Specifically I remember the part where the camera was almost completely covered, and the fin was barely visible. But juuuuuust barely, you could see that the fin was actuating, and it was alive! And then the crowd gets hype. That was the moment where I was like, wait, this could still happen!
Honestly, I started laughing my head off when I saw that ragged flap still moving and the Starship still maintaining attitude control with it. That’s the sort of battle damage I expect to see in a science fiction show, I wasn’t expecting SpaceX to bring that sort of thing into the real world too.