3. As it slows down more, more burns will be required to keep it high enough but once its slow enough, it can drop back to earth with a couple of slow down burns (like Falcon 9 booster) @elonmusk I am sure you have thought of that but curious why this wouldn't work?
@elonmusk In the spirit of "the best part is no part", why is it not possible to kill the heat shield, use the reduced weight to carry more propellant. On re-entry have Startship coast much longer in higher orbits to slow it down much slower but with less stress on starship.
2. As Starship starts to slow down it will start dropping faster but the additional propellant could be used to keep it in higher orbits (but as it slows down it can come down to lower orbits, function of speed and atmosphere density)
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@elonmusk Starship heat shield is and will be a long term liability for the project (super heavy and lots of small pieces and if one breaks its a problem e.g. see space shuttle). Have you not investigated (in unengineering fashion) doing away with it and change re-entry strategy?