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Every time I've watched a landing, the video feed is janky. One might speculate that they don't want to live-stream an embarrassing failure but that seems a bit
by jff 9y ago
Every time I've watched a landing, the video feed is janky. One might speculate that they don't want to live-stream an embarrassing failure but that seems a bit odd when it would be more embarrassing to have an explosion during launch, losing the payload.
Edit: vvvv that sounds quite reasonable, you'd think they'd do something like throw a buoy 100m away to house the actual satellite link and just do wifi from the barge to the buoy.
- baq 9y agoit's vibrations that shake the sat dish so much the link gets severed. convenient for them.
- ceejayoz 9y agoNo need for speculation - the feed never cuts out on the return-to-launch-site landings. It's only wonky on the ship landings. Bouys bounce around a lot - the drone ships have special station-keeping thrusters to stay in place.
- bdonlan 9y agoThe rocket engines also put out a ton of ionized particles that can interfere with the satellite signal.
- mikeash 9y agoKeeping video feed going during the landing is way, way, way, way, way, way down the priority list. The video gets recorded, so they don't need this for analysis. It's purely a promotional thing, which is fun, but saving five seconds of the stream (even if it's an important five seconds) is only worth so much effort.
- gozur88 9y agoYou're underestimating the shock waves those engines produce. During launches you see camera footage from miles away shaking as the engines go to full power. Of course there are solutions, but they're all expensive, and SpaceX has better things to spend money on. It's not like the footage doesn't exist - we're just not getting it live.