SpaceX's lesson from last Starship flight? "We need to seal the tiles."

"It was the 10th full-scale test flight of SpaceX's Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage, combining to form the world's largest rocket. There were a couple of overarching objectives on the August 26 test flight. SpaceX needed to overcome problems with Starship's propulsion and propellant systems that plagued three previous test flights. Then, engineers were hungry for data on Starship's heat shield, an array of thousands of tiles covering the ship's belly as it streaks through the atmosphere during reentry."

"Video from the buoy and a drone hovering nearby showed Starship coming in for splashdown, initially falling belly first before lighting three of its six Raptor engines to flip upright moments before settling into the ocean. But the ship had some battle scars. There was some visible damage to its rear end and flaps, and most notably, a rusty orange hue emblazoned down the side of the 171-foot-tall (52-meter) vehicle."

SpaceX is targeting an orbital Starship flight with a next-generation vehicle next year. Engineers diagnosed heat shield issues, identified improvements, and developed a preliminary plan for the next flight. The rocket lifted off on August 26 from Starbase, Texas, on the 10th full-scale test of Super Heavy and Starship. The flight aimed to resolve propulsion and propellant problems and gather heat shield data. Starship achieved a controlled splashdown near a buoy within about 10 feet of the target, sustained rear and flap damage, and showed orange discoloration attributed to oxidation of metallic heat shield.

Read at Ars Technica