On: Varda Capsule Reentry – Five Minutes from LEO to Earth [video]

[enderfusion]

Tiny pieces of the heatshield debonding from the craft and interacting with the plasma.

[elasker → enderfusion]

Compare the heat shield in the pic here (before launch): https://x.com/VardaSpace/status/1671621386065027072?s=20

To here (after reentry): https://x.com/VardaSpace/status/1760726397889466792?s=20

[danesparza → enderfusion]

"...and interacting with the plasma"

That sounds like an exciting day at work. ;-)

[rbanffy → danesparza]

Rapid unscheduled dismantling happening at the molecular level.

In this case, it wasn't really unscheduled.