3 ms·
Most expendable launchers are just dropped into the ocean anyway. SpaceX is the only company that has plans to completely recover the first stage. I can also a
by JshWright 11y ago
Most expendable launchers are just dropped into the ocean anyway. SpaceX is the only company that has plans to completely recover the first stage.
I can also assure you that they did do everything they could to locate and recover the debris from this launch. But for some altruistic environmental concern though
... They wanted every piece they could find so they could figure out what happened.
EDIT: Based on analysis from /r/spacex, this is from CRS-4 (not CRS-7), which successfully boosted its second stage, then performed a retropropulsion to test rentry (it didn't have landing legs, so a barge landing couldn't be attempted). I suspect SpaceX still tried to recover as much as they could of the stage, in order to see how well it handled the rentry.
- silvestrov 11y agoDon't you mean: But NOT for some altruistic ...
- JshWright 11y agoIndeed I do, thanks (the danger of typing on mobile... linebreaks are common and proofreading is hard).
- peter303 11y agoBlue Origin just demonstrated a recoverable rocket. But their ambition is just suborbital which only needs 1/8th the power or orbital flight.
- mikeash 11y agoI believe Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are both planning for reusable orbital launchers. They're pretty far out from flying, though. I think SpaceX is the only one actually putting stuff into orbit with concrete plans for reusability.
- JshWright 11y agoYeah, by "launcher" I meant "rockets that can put things into orbit". New Shepard is cool and all, but it's not really in the same weight class as "real" launchers. https://i.imgur.com/g2VIKVC.jpg https://i.imgur.com/g2VIKVC.jpg