• mipadaitu@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    1 month ago

    There was a lot of extra fire at the end, but it looked amazing.

    It’s going both way slower than expected, but progress is also super rapid. This is exactly what they needed to get going with the Artemis moon landing. Without this catch they’d never be able to refuel cost effectively.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      30 days ago

      Can you imagine going back to the Apollo era and showing them this video and going just land it on the launch pad again. Obvious really.

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 month ago

    Watching it was incredible, however not surprising. This is just an evolution of what SpaceX has gotten good at. They’re “just” changed the point where it stops, with less stress on the rocket and less parts to fail (the landing gear). I know there’s a lot of complexity behind it working, this isn’t downplaying the effort. It’s applauding how they’re slowly making reusable rockets common.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      30 days ago

      The thing is they’re the only people working on reusable rockets even NASA have given up with the idea (after barely even trying).

      So every milestone increases the likelihood that will get more reusable rockets now that they’ve proven the concept in sound.

      • Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        29 days ago

        I wouldn’t say they are the only ones, New Glen is supposed to be a partially reusable rocket.

        Others like Rocket Lab are working on smaller “printable” rockets. So there is definitely a lot of innovation going on in the industry.