3 ms·

I'm not sure that landing is more dangerous than takeoff. It's true that the thing is pointed towards the earth, but on the other hand there is a lot less fuel

• ericcumbee 12y ago
  The problem is that on launch the rocket is moving away from inhabited areas and out toward uninhabited areas during launch. On Landing it's going towards more densely populated areas. I wonder if maybe the solution is to land them on some uninhabited island, like the one the USAF targets ICBMs with dummy warheads on it from time to time.
  • Crito 12y ago
    From what I have heard, the first stage will come in aimed away at the landing, or anything else, and then perform the divert maneuver that they've been testing with Grasshopper/F9R-Dev to put itself over the landing site at the last moment. That way if anything goes wrong before the last few seconds, the rocket won't fall where it was suppose to land. They are definitely planning on doing boost-back to the general area of the launch site though, not aiming for a target down-range. The launch this weekend will have them bringing the stage back closer to land than the previous attempt.
  • deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]