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Commercialization

Photo of a Rocketship Landing Attempt

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
May 3, 2015
Filed under

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

12 responses to “Photo of a Rocketship Landing Attempt”

  1. Yale S says:
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    I like where you can see the engine slammed over to the side trying to compensate.

  2. Shaw_Bob says:
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    Almost!

  3. Hsi S. Chen says:
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    The best landing on the land is yet to come.

    • Yale S says:
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      June 19 for the barge, and if all goes groovy, likely July 22 for on-land touchdown.

  4. Ben Russell-Gough says:
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    Dear old Elon! He’s a real space cadet at heart, isn’t he? I think that’s why I like him so much!

  5. Yale S says:
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    “If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative.”
    ― Woody Allen

  6. Yale S says:
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    A Chesley Bonestell painting:

    http://41.media.tumblr.com/

    • wwheaton says:
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      From Willy Ley’s book, “The Conquest of Space”, no? Anybody remember “Destination Moon”? 🙂

  7. Saturn1300 says:
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    The landing gear must not be extended all the way yet. It is nearly horizontal. If it landed this way the engines would hit. The struts have to be extended all of the way so that they can have full travel to absorb the shock. About 45 degrees for the landing gear legs. I checked the video using pause. This does look like the final landing config. It looks like they are landing with very little travel, shock absorption. It would have to be a very soft landing to keep the gear from collapsing, even if it landed flat. I wish I could just see how awesome it is, rather than coming up with what may be a problem. This is obvious, so I must be wrong. What may help is to let the legs extend 45 deg. Have a small hole at the top of cylinders and air would cushion. The legs would travel to the position shown and lock in place. This idea is well known, used in door closers, so must not work or is not needed. The LG has to be light, but this idea does not add weight. The legs are fixed now. It can and has to land at less than 1g or so. Airplanes can land at less than 1g, but they can also land at many g’s without damage. Another advantage for glide back. Very strong LG. It could collapse the LG and only the bottom engine would be damaged. A hard landing on this stage and all the engines are damaged.

  8. DTARS says:
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    A COOLER PICTURE!!!

    I was surprised they did a hold down test. My old brain was thinking one shot solids.

    That thing looks like a lander!!! 🙂

    Anyone know how many times you can relight a Super Draco? How many times have they tested for so far?

    • Ben Russell-Gough says:
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      When you consider SpaceX’s philosophy of minimum turn- around times and airliner-like flight rates, then I imagine that Super-Draco was designed to operate for multiple operational cycles before requiring more than low-level routine maintenance and refuelling.

      Whether that intent can be met in practice is part of what I imagine the upcoming DragonFly tests will be intended to explore.

  9. objose says:
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    I have had an effect! Keith: you called this a landing “attempt.” Actually to quote a guy I was arguing with named Keith, “Watch the video. It landed. Then it fell over and blew up.”

    So you should revise this title to say:

    Photo of a Rocketship Landing, then falling over.

    Please do not excommunicate me for being a. . .