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But why, if you don't need to





Aghm, sorry, I meant, the tanks actually are pressurized at landing and not at risk of buckling. Why depressurize?

The pressure is enough to help push out liquid fuel but I don't think that means the pressure can be fully relied upon to provide structural support.

That's literally how original Atlas rockets and modern Centaur stages work.

Starship is literally not an Atlas rocket or Centaur stage.

Starship uses autogenous pressurization, which is not what Atlas/Centaur used.


You know, that's completely unimportant. The important parts are that 1) Starship stage is under pressure when landing and 2) pressurization makes a thin-walled metal cylinder much stronger resisting buckling. Details of how Starship works and how pressurization is historically used to increase strength are just to support these two points. But if you already have these two points, you should admit that the argument "Starship can't land on legs because there's too big of a risk of buckling" has some counterarguments. And the overall decision isn't as clear as we'd like to have it.

Sure, but I am quite sure pressure is expected to be in place & provides the necessary strength for all the maneuvers.



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