i know they got the data they needed/wanted but can you really call it a success with that ending?
on a side note: how much money do they lose whenever they have a crash landing like that?
SpaceX launches and nearly lands starship on its first suborbital flight
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Re: SpaceX launches and nearly lands starship on its first suborbital flight
#12I remember watching the Tesla going into space and the rockets landing on the platform. I remember thinking "Wow this man has restarted the space race for my generation." It was a hopeful and wonderful feeling, I figured with the budget cuts, the politics, and the general "been there done that" attitude that was prominent for much of my life space was closed. To see it opened again, gives me some sort of hope, some i…
As a young person (21), I feel the same way. Space exploration and a beautiful future suddenly seems achievable with hard work and a lot of engineering instead of just feeling impossible.
Re: SpaceX launches and nearly lands starship on its first suborbital flight
#13Swing and a miss.. but not by much! Congrats to the SpaceX team on the amazing and fast progress. What an incredible step forward.
It says something about what they have done for rocketry when crashes on landing are note worthy. No one else even tries what they do normally without issue.
Re: SpaceX launches and nearly lands starship on its first suborbital flight
#14i know they got the data they needed/wanted but can you really call it a success with that ending? on a side note: how much money do they lose whenever they have a crash landing like that?
It depends on the goals of the launch. If they met their goal criteria, and sticking the landing wasn't one of the goals, then it's a success.
Re: SpaceX launches and nearly lands starship on its first suborbital flight
#15If you watch the last few frames, it looks like the ship indeed landed. From the perspective that for a split second the entire vehicle was upright and in touch with the ground, that is. I’m not one to be a pedant, but you can claim a landing if you squint at it long enough.
a) "Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing"
b) "Any landing where you can re-use the equipment again is a great landing"
Old aviation sayings. :) Oh well. ;)
Re: SpaceX launches and nearly lands starship on its first suborbital flight
#16i know they got the data they needed/wanted but can you really call it a success with that ending? on a side note: how much money do they lose whenever they have a crash landing like that?
I'm sure there's some cost in cleaning up the scrap and repairing any damage to the facility. But it's a prototype, and I think this was the only flight planned for this one.
Re: SpaceX launches and nearly lands starship on its first suborbital flight
#17i know they got the data they needed/wanted but can you really call it a success with that ending? on a side note: how much money do they lose whenever they have a crash landing like that?
Never heard of a test to destruction?
Re: SpaceX launches and nearly lands starship on its first suborbital flight
#18I mean, it didn't nearly land. It landed. For certain values of that verb.
Re: SpaceX launches and nearly lands starship on its first suborbital flight
#19If you watch the last few frames, it looks like the ship indeed landed. From the perspective that for a split second the entire vehicle was upright and in touch with the ground, that is. I’m not one to be a pedant, but you can claim a landing if you squint at it long enough.
Sure, it's a hard-landing or crash-landing. The vehicle was obviously under control but not making enough thrust for a soft touch down.
Re: SpaceX launches and nearly lands starship on its first suborbital flight
#20i know they got the data they needed/wanted but can you really call it a success with that ending? on a side note: how much money do they lose whenever they have a crash landing like that?
They could do more part verification, but it might take twice the time and 3 times the money for the same insights. Just launch some prototypes and see what happens.