3 ms·
It gets even better: "Base is 300 ft by 100 ft, with wings that extend width to 170 ft. Will allow refuel & rocket flyback in future." https://twitter.com/elo
by pjscott 12y ago
It gets even better:
"Base is 300 ft by 100 ft, with wings that extend width to 170 ft. Will allow refuel & rocket flyback in future."
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/536263260056850432 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/536263260056850432
Instead of spending valuable propellant on a boostback burn to get to the launch site, they'll just partially refuel the spent lower stage on the barge and have it fly itself back to the launch site. This'll improve their maximum payload, and possibly save money.
- trhway 12y ago>they'll just partially refuel the spent lower stage on the barge and have it fly itself back to the launch site. given the capabilities of the stage, wouldn't it basically be a suborbital hyper-transport - they can fly it from any point A to point B, like from SF to Honk-Kong must faster than Concorde.
- Gravityloss 12y agoThat's very hard. The hop it does is just a few hundred kilometers. ISS orbits at around 300 km height. Just crossing the atlantic would require 6000 km horizontal travel. So 20x horzontal vs vertical. If you want to avoid the radiation belts, you need a relatively shallow trajectory. The velocity needed is near orbital. High ICBM trajectories have issues...