>>14390819Starship TPS is pretty much untested at this point, it hasn't even gone through a full SH static fire. And tiles have already been falling off with simple static fires. But I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt because S20 is the first of its kind and they could improve in mounting techniques in the future.
As for a hypothetical shuttle II, I would unironically accept $50 billion and 20 years with a drawn-out cost plus contract for metallic TPS IF it meant we eventually got working metallic TPS (especially if they were strong enough to survive interplanetary velocity reentry, not just LEO reentry) because it would basically solve the problem for the rest of time. Unlocking some tough ass, light ass metal tiles would be just as important as getting a DFD
