this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2023
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Extra mass on the first stage is far less burdensome than it is on the upper stage. That's probably even more true here than in most rockets, given how early it stages. They might be able to get away with the mass of thermal shielding in the interstage. Steel is also fairly robust against heat, so perhaps it can withstand it for the few seconds which are required so long as they have somewhere else to hide the electronics and hydraulics
If you look at what happened with the interstage on the Titan II then you get an idea of some of the forces acting. Even after the second stage had moved away a few feet, when the engines throttled up the whole interstage was just blown apart. And that was just one small engine, not six raptors.
Perhaps the interstage will be sacrificial. Perhaps they don't care at the moment because the early test boosters are not recoverable anyway. Maybe they'll go back to the flip when other parts have been proven. So many unknowns.
Since Superheavy is still under power (center 3 engines, at 50%), maybe it just steers out of the exhaust before Starship lights the vacuum Raptors.