True. I guess I’m thinking of the word launch for a rocket in the way I think of the word flight for a plane though obviously that’s not the correct way to think of it.
Yes, the complete flight was a failure, but the launch/take-off was fine. I’m looking forward to a complete flight success, but they are at least getting good at the first stage of “pointy end up, flamey end down”, now they just need to perfect the second part.
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I don’t get this whole thing. They want to land a long tube axially instead of on its big, long, stable surface?
These engineers watched too many Duck Dodgers and Marvin Martian cartoons.
You can land it on it’s end, or on it’s side. You already have engines on the end to slow it down. Why wouldn’t you use them? Remember, this is the upper stage of a two stage rocket. Every gram that goes up is a gram that isn’t payload.
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It’s called a ‘prototype’ for a reason.
They pretty much have an assembly line going; You can see #10 on the pad & they have started assembly of #16, with the others in various stages of completion.
It is built to take the axial loads; plus it saves on turnaround time getting it ready for the next flight.
Musk envisions it as serving to ferry passengers/cargo to anywhere on Earth (that has proper facilities), as well as going to the Moon and Mars.
Exactly. You would need additional engines to land it on its side, strengthen the hull to take the load, add landing gear, plumbing, etc, etc.
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Shame, Antonio had only just bought that Tesla.
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