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I almost think it would be easier to let it do what this video shows, and build a giant metal net to just prevent it from sinking. Or is that harder than landin

• Throwaway90283 11y ago
  It looks small in the video, but that first stage is the height of a 20 story building. It can't tip over without destroying itself, and it's not something you want to get wet.
• mb_72 11y ago
  My thoughts too, but I guess any ingress of sea water makes it necessary to junk the engines. Also, once you've solved the 'landing problem' once, presumably the method can be reused on each and every subsequent landing; if you are looking at many such landings it becomes worth doing it 'once' and properly.
  • TeMPOraL 11y ago
    > if you are looking at many such landings it becomes worth doing it 'once' and properly. Yup; the point is, SpaceX is not trying to just recover the first stage, they're trying to solve the vertical-landing of rockets for rapid reusability - which is vital not only for cost reduction, but for their plans to go to Mars. Because if they solve landing here, they can use the very same technique to land on Moon, Mars and other planets.
• ansible 11y ago
  The goal is not to recover the stage per-se, but to land successfully. If they get a the 1st stage down on the drone ship, with all four legs touching, the main engine shut off, and it stays upright for even a few seconds, there will be much celebration. They would, of course, want to then actually examine the rocket afterwards, but that is a bonus.