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Looking at the really interesting imagery from Starship Flight 3, it is obvious that Starship is rotating (tumbling-ish) during coasting, and also during the initial reentry phase. The plasma streaks looks as if the starship is doing reentry partially sideways, hence not utilizing the heat shield properly… is this by design or can we expect some control mechanism to keep a controlled flight position related to earth during coasting/reentry in coming flight tests?

I am thinking such rotation/tumbling might be disorientating for future passengers, or am I wrong?

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  • $\begingroup$ The term to google is 'reaction control system' or 'RCS', but it is unclear what SpaceX was using for Starship flight 3 at this time. The classical/proven solutions use exciting chemistry that SpaceX has made statements around wanting to avoid. Certainly whatever it was appears to not have got the vehicle correctly aligned for re-entry. $\endgroup$
    – GremlinWranger
    Commented Mar 15 at 7:45
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    $\begingroup$ It was in control during the first few minutes of the coast phase. Then something seemed to have rendered the control system inoperable and Starship entered a slow roll that continued unchecked for the remainder of the flight. $\endgroup$
    – Steve Pemberton
    Commented Mar 16 at 10:58

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Some of the rotation that was visible on the live stream was due to the placement of the camera. We were watching from a camera on the bottom of the front flap, pointed at the rear flap.

As the front flap moved, suddenly the picture rotated. However it did not look perfectly in control, with some speculation that the cold gas thrusters were not entirely working perfectly.

The chunks falling off were likely ice. Initially it would have been water ice, from moisture that condensed outside the vehicle while it was lower in the atmosphere, and later likely from the gas thrusters exhaust freezing and then falling off.

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  • $\begingroup$ And it looked like only 2 engines reignited out of 13. Oof $\endgroup$
    – Machavity
    Commented Mar 14 at 18:27
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    $\begingroup$ @Machavity that would be the booster, not the Starship. $\endgroup$
    – ikrase
    Commented Mar 16 at 3:01
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Will there be a controll mechanism to keep spacex starship in a controlled position during coasting and/or reentry?

There already is. Starship has ullage gas thrusters for attitude control.

is this by design or can we expect some control mechanism to keep a controlled flight position related to earth during coasting/reentry in coming flight tests?

It is not by design. Obviously, something went wrong with the attitude control system.

Unfortunately, SpaceX is a private company and is not publicly traded either, so they don't have to disclose what the problem was to anyone other than the FAA, and we will probably never know for sure what the problem was.

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