Unfortunately the launch (well the return) did not go well this evening. It is interesting just how challenging this technology is proving.
about 58 mins is the critical phase.
I think Elon Musk once said of this endeavour – if you’re not having enough RUDs, you’re not trying hard enough.
(RUD = rapid unscheduled disassembly)
But the crater was in the correct place, so success.
Given that this was only the second flight, I’d say they’re doing rather well.
OK, but how many do they expect to disassemble rapidly? isnt that a tad costly?
They have succeeded several times before.
skydriller wrote:
OK, but how many do they expect to disassemble rapidly? isnt that a tad costly?
All in all quite a lot less costly most probably than the old NASA rockets which were disposable mostly. Particularly if they get to the point where landings will go with a high success rate.
I think they’re doing well, given how many Falcon 9s they got through until they started having successful landings, I wouldn’t expect these new ones to work first go.
They’ve now had 74 successful landings of the Falcon boosters which is absolutely amazing, and they’re being routinely reused. This is out of 84 attempts. The one that did the first crewed Dragon launch had something like 6 prior launches, and the boosters don’t need a full rebuild like the Shuttle did. Hard to not be impressed.
