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This twitch video appears to be shot from Jetty Park, so there's a hill in the way. The people talking in the video can't see that the booster is out over the w
by greglindahl 8y ago
This twitch video appears to be shot from Jetty Park, so there's a hill in the way. The people talking in the video can't see that the booster is out over the water. This is actually what's supposed to happen if the rocket thinks it has a problem: it's pointed offshore until the middle of the final landing burn. If it's unhappy, it stays pointed at the ocean.
This video from a plane shows how far offshore it was: https://twitter.com/flying_briann/status/1070392207696453632 https://twitter.com/flying_briann/status/1070392207696453632
And Elon's tweet with SpaceX's video from the booster itself: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1070399755526656000 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1070399755526656000
- Symmetry 8y agoSurprised but glad it didn't explode after it fell over. Apparently they plan to use it for internal projects, which I took to mean the in-flight abort test of the Dragon. I seem to recall that the Block 5 is targeting >10 reuses so even if they flub 1 in 20 landings going forward that's far from the end of the world in ROI terms.
- achamayou 8y agoIt’s pretty much out of fuel by then, so an explosion isn’t very likely.
- Klathmon 8y agoTo be fair, there are plenty of examples of it exploding after touchdown in the early days (of landings), both on the barge and in the water, some which are pretty spectacular looking! It may not meet the technical definition of an "explosion", but the fact that it's still intact here is a testament to how "soft" this hard landing was.
- mabbo 8y agoThere's lots of great videos to prove you wrong on that one, actually. The most dangerous time for a can of gasoline is when it's just been emptied- because it's actually full, just of air and gasoline vapor. It's a bomb at that point if you aren't careful. Rockets? Similar problems. Watch what happened a few years ago when another Falcon 9 fell over because of a faulty landing leg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr7GcpFGWd0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr7GcpFGWd0
- achamayou 8y agoRockets contain both fuel and oxidiser, explosions when they are full are considerably worse than when empty. Compare the video you have linked to clips of Atlas or Soyuz blowing up on the pad.
- mabbo 8y agoToo true! The Falcon 9 that exploded on the launch pad certainly proved that point. Nonetheless, an empty rocket is still dangerous.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- greglindahl 8y ago4 of 6 water landings blew up. A small amount of LOX goes a long way.