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SpaceX first stage landing failed for Starlink-4 launch

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Re: SpaceX first stage landing failed for Starlink-4 launch

#31

When are people gonna start talking about the elephant in the room? There is no publicly available data that points to reusable rockets being safe for human return.

Nobody is trying to land humans on the reusable part of the rocket, this is the first stage returning under power. There is no elephant in the room, there is no room and no elephant either, so a lack of data is the expectation, not something worth mentioning.

Re: SpaceX first stage landing failed for Starlink-4 launch

#32

When are people gonna start talking about the elephant in the room? There is no publicly available data that points to reusable rockets being safe for human return.

Not sure if you're being serious or not, but the Shuttle was reusable (or at least, the part that carried the crew was).

Re: SpaceX first stage landing failed for Starlink-4 launch

#34

When are people gonna start talking about the elephant in the room? There is no publicly available data that points to reusable rockets being safe for human return.

Not sure if you're being serious or not, but the Shuttle was reusable (or at least, the part that carried the crew was).

Sorry, I'm I unclear. I'm talking about the star ship design of powered landing.

Re: SpaceX first stage landing failed for Starlink-4 launch

#35

When are people gonna start talking about the elephant in the room? There is no publicly available data that points to reusable rockets being safe for human return.

Nobody is trying to land humans on the reusable part of the rocket, this is the first stage returning under power. There is no elephant in the room, there is no room and no elephant either, so a lack of data is the expectation, not something worth mentioning.

Spacex plans to land humans on a reusable part of the rocket with the stardip.

Re: SpaceX first stage landing failed for Starlink-4 launch

#37
post #5

I believe they do a little horizontal kick just before landing when they validate things are look good. Potentially something wasn’t right and it just crashed into the ocean like 100 yards from the drone ship.. the good thing is that spaceX seems to learn from all of these issues and compensates, so will be interesting to here what happened.

You're right with it not targeting the droneship directly from afar, but today's webcast [0] said "soft-landing on the water right next to the droneship". In other words not the full speed missile impact scenario. I'm eager to get news/details as well.

[0] https://youtu.be/8xeX62mLcf8?t=1531

Re: SpaceX first stage landing failed for Starlink-4 launch

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is accurate. More good examples of this passive-safety landing procedure in action were in the Heavy demo flight and the CRS-16 mission. The Heavy demo center core failed to relight two of the three engines needed for landing, and plunged right into the water off the side of the landing barge ( https://youtu.be/A0FZIwabctw?t=72 ). CRS-16's booster had a hydraulic failure of the grid fins but still had engine and…

If I remember correctly this procedure was implemented after SES-9, which came in too hot and broke straight through the deck of the droneship.

I'm pretty sure it pre-dates the first landing, it's an important safety feature when aiming the booster at land.

Re: SpaceX first stage landing failed for Starlink-4 launch

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember everyone in my office stopped working for about 30 minutes to watch that dual rocket landing and being completely blown away.

I wonder how it is when you're on site, it's hard to appreciate the scale on video

It’s surreal. We observed from the Canaveral AFB entrance observation bleachers, and I think it’s easier to appreciate if you can get closer to the landing zone pads (either with KSC’s “Feel The Heat” tour tickets or being a SpaceX employee).
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