I wasn’t watching a very high res stream but did anyone else notice what looked like a blackish/sooty exhaust on the way up from one engine? Maybe it was just the video feed... My hunch is at least one engine wasn’t performing 100% but the flight control software was able to compensate pretty freaking well.
I agree. On the SpaceX stream from inside the engine shroud it was very clear that one engine had a blue flame-exhaust, while the other was noticeably yellow. My laymen rocket skills makes me think the yellow one wasn't performing very well.
Given these two limitations, Starship currently carries very little fuel. Think of it like a mostly empty soda can with a few sips sloshing about the bottom. Adding 3 Raptor engines to such a tank makes them way too powerful to run at 100% thrust the whole time.
On the launchpad, all 3 Raptors start off at full thrust until well clear of the pad. At that point, one engine at a time starts throttling down gradually, so as not to go supersonic or exceed the 10 km flight plan. A throttled engine does not burn as cleanly or efficiently, which is what results in the orange exhaust plume. Same as your campfire, blue flame is hotter than orange/red flame, and the bluer exhaust engine is therefore burning hotter and providing more thrust.
As Starship gets closer to the 10 km peak, it shuts off one engine at a time, and finally throttles the final Raptor down as low as it can go. Note that Raptor engines have a minimum throttle that is ~20% of max thrust, below which the only option is to shut down.