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> If you can show me someone actually managing to land a launch-capable rocket, and not just some testbed demo capable of throttling to less than hover, I'm all
by babyrainbow 10y ago
> If you can show me someone actually managing to land a launch-capable rocket, and not just some testbed demo capable of throttling to less than hover, I'm all ears.
Are you saying only SpaceX is capable of doing this? Seriously?
- avmich 10y agoAre you saying that only USA were able to put a man on the Moon in 1960-s? Seriously?
- babyrainbow 10y agoNo. That would be an utterly moronic claim if someone made it..
- snrplfth 10y agoHere's what they actually did that was novel: - Building an engine capable of multiple restarts while facing into a supersonic headwind, which are necessary for any kind of successful propulsive landing. - Designing a mass-thrifty first stage simultaneously lightweight enough to be able to accommodate the added weight of landing equipment, but strong enough to handle the tensile stress and buffeting of atmospheric reentry. - Developing ultralight landing legs to enable stable landings at low mass cost. But most of the innovation has been in the realm of integrating existing technology in new ways. They brought together cold gas thrusters, grid fins, and thrust vectoring - none of which were new - into a complete package capable of precisely controlling the flight of a 15-storey first stage from the upper atmosphere to the ground. It's the act of getting technologies to work together that is often the source of the greatest gains. [edit for format]