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Skylon

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Nose temperatures have stopped increasing!

So the metal isn't getting any hotter, but it could still be fairly hot (which is to say, comparatively soft), and the aerodynamic forces aren't very high right at the moment (they called out half a G of deceleration), so the biggest tribulations are still ahead of it.

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I am really, really impressed so far. I was expecting much more control movement through re-entry. Hate to jinx it but this is just picture-perfect so far.

Let's hope the heat shield holds!

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Just now, Minmus Taster said:

Why are we not losing alttitude?

It is still losing altitude, but the fidelity of the altitude figure is very low - they only report the nearest available kilometer.

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OMG, really really gorgeous plasma now that we are down in the slightly deeper atmosphere. Just absolutely rock-solid. I'm seeing some flashes and sparks though!

1 minute ago, Minmus Taster said:

Why are we not losing alttitude?

Hypersonic body lift.

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By the way, for those of you who know your stuff ... are the re-entry fireworks green at this altitude for the same reason that the aurora is green? Or is it because of the camera settings?

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ooooooh now some motion from the forward flaps! Adjusting attitude as it enters the thicker atmosphere. Still very well-controlled.

He's explaining that they left a couple of tiles off of areas that aren't re-entry critical, with lots of instrumentation to see what the impact to the stainless is.

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1 minute ago, Codraroll said:

By the way, for those of you who know your stuff ... are the re-entry fireworks green at this altitude for the same reason that the aurora is green? Or is it because of the camera settings?

Nothing like aurora. That's a combo of camera settings and chemical behaviors in the plasma -- oxygen and nitrogen.

I'm seeing debris

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The lens is mucked up, the glass cracked, the ship is literally melting and re-entering the atmosphere at three kilometers per second, and we still have footage and telemetry. This is possibly the most extreme situation ever filmed.

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