[AR] Re: SpaceX Single Stage to Orbit -wings
- From: Peter Fairbrother <peter@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2019 17:56:30 +0100
On 02/06/2019 05:57, Henry Spencer wrote:
[re F9 first stage:] Vertical landing under rocket power was
retrofitted into the system after early attempts made it clear that the
splashdown concept simply wouldn't work -- the stages broke up during
reentry.)
Do you mean the first stages broke up on splashdown? Not meaning to be
pernickety, but if it broke up on reentry, wouldn't the vertical landing
stages break up too?
Didn't they expect that? Tie the useful bits together with some wire and
a float ...
Though vertical landing under rocket power does seem to work for them, I
wonder about human landings - I know Soyuz uses last-minute braking
rockets, but perhaps that is a bit different somehow?
Or did the Russians get it right all that long time ago - on reflection
it doesn't seem that difficult, get radar height, differentiate to get
radar vertical velocity, consult precomputed table of height/velocity,
fire rockets according to table.
Peter Fairbrother
Other related posts:
