Only SpaceX could say but that horizontal attitude could be the natural falling attitude for an object of that shape.
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That’s expected. It uses the fins to glide to the landing site, then goes vertical for landing.
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I had a flashback to oh so many failed attempts at Lunar Lander.
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I was wondering the same.
Could also be:
- Positive reinforcement to the team in in the midst of failure
- This was actually the plan all along, testing other features and then failing the landing was part of it.
- Serious sarcasm on the video teams part
I wanna go with 3.
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explodes on failed landing
I bet you’re one of those people who immediately points out flaws in children’s artwork.
As Elon tweeted, that was a hugely successful test - minus the last handful of seconds. And even that part they already know why it happened.
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Not sarcasm at all, nor just positive reinforcement, nor part of the plan. There were a TON of exceptional accomplishments demonstrated in that test.
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That was AMAZING! Next huge step in space. Funny how Boing Boing hates on anything Elon. Did Elon punch you in the gut as a kid or something? 95% of Boing Boing Tesla / Space X “news items” here are negative. So funny. Elon quickly said flight was a huge success and they got all the data they were looking for. This is why space X moves SOOOOO much faster then NASA / Boing etc etc. They make and TEST stuff and quickly improve. ALREADY have EIGHT Starship rockets being built to test (possibly to failure.) So exciting to watch!
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At that descent angle it glides a bit on the fins, giving steering authority; and it presents the maximum drag profile so it slows down as much as possible without using parachutes. They turned it that way intentionally during this test to ensure the thrusters will properly orient the rocket before the final descent burn to the landing pad.
I wonder what really happened, though. Did it miscalculate the fuel remaining and come down heavy? Or was there some mechanical reason the engine failed to produce enough thrust? In any case they were very close, which is pretty good at this stage of development.
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I was wondering if that’s going to land a bit too hard… Guess it did! I mean, it was pretty spectacular, watching it falling sideways, then almost at last second, twist right side up and full full retro rockets… but really, couldn’t they built in a bit more cushion to achieve softer landing? :-\
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THAT link starts at the correct point for me. Oddly when I first clicked on the video, it did start at the beginning.
Anyway, yikes. Looks like they had a little too much mustard on the descent. Would a parachute assist help arrest it better? Probably not… probably just make it harder to land upright. 
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That was good news an AMAZING test flight and lots of data for the next one which is already built. Way to go SPACE-X! So exciting!
For maximum efficiency you would land on automatic guidance at maximum thrust. A human pilot would come down more gently and waste fuel.
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Ya Elon said lost pressure in a fuel tank, Not sure if landing legs were out either Awesome flight.
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I was thinking George Pal…
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SpaceX moves faster than NASA because NASA worked it all out on paper twenty years ago, then could do nothing with it because of endless budget cuts. Sometimes throwing money at the problem is the answer.
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any idea what fuel they’re using?
it looks so different than, say, an old skool shuttle launch.
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Methane and liquid oxygen
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My impression, and IANARS (I am not a rocket scientist), was that I thought it looked like an engine failed during the ascent phase, causing a bit of a fire and a serious fuel leak, but nobody has mentioned that so maybe that’s normal? Later a second engine went out, but then they all seemed to work just before landing. I assumed that the “fuel leak” meant they didn’t have enough fuel to power all 3 engines for the landing.
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Musk said lost pressure in headertank and that doesn’t have to refer to a fuel tank. One of the early falcon first stage landing failures was caused by a loss of hydraulic fluid pressure. The “headertank” could be there to pressurize the hydraulics.
Loss of pressure could also cause a loss of pressure in one or both fuel tanks, which would reduce fuel and oxidiser flow to the engines.
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