[modeless]

It's a good question. The hurdle to clear for same-day reuse will be the heat shield. SpaceX hasn't yet demonstrated that Starship can reenter the atmosphere and remain fully intact. Doing it while sustaining near zero wear on the heat shield will be even harder. But I think it is not impossible, and I don't know of any other obvious blockers for same day reuse.

[soperj]

They'll likely reuse the booster on the same day well before the starship portion. No heat shield on the booster. Some starships will likely stay in space for a long time before returning.

[thinkcontext]

Musk has said they're aiming for hundreds of reuses for the booster and dozens for the ship.

[WalterBright]

Zero wear is not necessary. The tiles can be thicker than the minimum, and be reusable until they wear down to the minimum. Like the brake pads on your car.

[BurningFrog]

It's certainly looked fully intact when reaching ground.

When they manage to do the intended landing it should be pretty unharmed, but I'm sure it will take a while before same-day reuse is attempted.

[modeless]

One of the flaps burned through again. Not as bad as the first time. The hinge area seems like the hardest challenge.

[bryanlarsen]

It was a flap hinge that burnt through, not the flap. They have a solution for block 2 which we'll likely see in test 7 -- move the flap slightly further back so that the hinge isn't in direct flow.

[dylan604]

Is this a bit of over engineering? How much is drag reduced during liftoff by having the flaps folded?

[modeless]

The reason the flaps move is to provide attitude and speed control during reentry. Like a skydiver spreading their arms and legs.

[dylan604]

oh, you mean like actual flaps of pretty much any aircraft. doh! i was thinking it was like the folding of the wings for planes on an aircraft carrier. sometimes my brain, boy, i don't know

[YetAnotherNick]

Even if they can reuse the booster, it would be huge.