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The experience of the Shuttle program demonstrated that taking off like a rocket and landing like a plane has a lot of problems that make it not as great as you
by timdiggerm 10y ago
The experience of the Shuttle program demonstrated that taking off like a rocket and landing like a plane has a lot of problems that make it not as great as you might think. The wings, heat shield, etc are all pretty heavy - notice that the shuttle required two whole extra rockets and a disposable fuel tank to make it to orbit - and the heat shield required for landing like a plane turned out to be a huge problem (see: The Columbia Disaster).
Plus, it turns out that landing a rocket vertically is now possible. I'm not clear on if it's now possible thanks to advances in technology (particularly in automation) or if it's just that no one had tried it until now.
- aninhumer 10y agoNote that the Space Shuttle only needs a heat shield because it's returning from orbital velocity. The Falcon 9 first stage is suborbital.
- timdiggerm 10y agoOh yeah, that's a very good point.
- kirrent 10y agoEven at the far slower speed the first stage would still be damaged from re-entry. That's why they do a re-entry burn to slow the stage down before the atmosphere gets too dense. There's apparently also some interesting physics on the engine firing dissipating the bow shock which helps keep temperatures down.