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SpaceX Breaks Down Its Rocket Landing Attempts
An anonymous reader writes: Twice now, SpaceX has attempted to land one of its rockets on a barge in the ocean after it delivered a payload to orbit. Each attempt came very close, and provided some fascinating imagery. In a new post on their website, SpaceX explains where they're at with rocket landing technology, and what went wrong with the earlier trials: "That controlled descent was successful, but about 10 seconds before landing, a valve controlling the rocket's engine power (thrust) temporarily stopped responding to commands as quickly as it should have. As a result, it throttled down a few seconds later than commanded, and—with the rocket weighing about 67,000 lbs and traveling nearly 200 mph at this point—a few seconds can be a very long time. With the throttle essentially stuck on 'high' and the engine firing longer than it was supposed to, the vehicle temporarily lost control and was unable to recover in time for landing, eventually tipping over." They believe they've solved the issues that cropped up in the earlier tests, and they're looking forward to the next attempt, which will happen on Sunday if the weather cooperates.
Musk has said he wants to do it in style. I think what he means is that if they cannot prove they can do it perfectly, then USAF, and FFA won't allow them to land on land, which is the ultimate goal. Since barge landing will always be dependent on weather. Also, the first stage is much like a soda can. Very very thin aluminum. If it falls on something, or there is a small chance it has been damaged in any way, refurbish costs would become expensive. What he wants is to drive down launch costs, and to do that, just make it work perfectly.
"... and they look like amateurs"
Are you KIDDING! Have you seen the videos? What they did with those rockets already is freaking incredible, even if the last bit was a giant explosion. People who attack them with comments like that because they didn't get it perfect the first few times amaze me.