Starship Header Tanks & No Landing Legs - Explained During the belly-flop reentry, Starship falls horizontally. Propellant in the main tanks sloshes to one side. If the Raptors tried to pull from them, they’d ingest air and destroy themselves. That’s why Starship carries two small, dedicated header tanks (one in the nose, one inside the main tank). They stay completely full and pressurized, feeding the engines only for the final flip and landing burn. Landing legs were dropped for the same reason everything else was simplified: • Massive dead weight = less payload to orbit • Terrible turnaround: land off-pad → cranes → transport → slow ops Catching the ship and booster with the tower arms puts them straight back on the mount. That’s what makes rapid reuse (target: refly in under an hour) actually possible.