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Space X.....spot landing


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Certainly an impressive technical achievement, but just how practical is it to have a rocket return in this manner? One thinks of all the extra fuel it needs to carry and the subsequent reduction in payload.

The Russians seem to have got it right in that they have what is really a developed version of Korolev's cold war R7 missile and well proven spacecraft in the Soyuz that is not fancy but does the job. I imagine that they also have wider access these days to the latest computer hardware and software should they feel the need of it.

Each rocket and spacecraft is built new for its mission and subsequently discarded so they don't incur the expensive maintenance and development costs that crippled the Shuttle - this must also be a significant impediment to the SpaceX launcher?

 

Edited By Cuban8 on 23/12/2015 09:01:58

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I agree Steve. I used to do a talk to school kids about the Shuttle - and one of the things I used to tell themwas: "Any idiot can make a massive bang with 500 tonnes of liquid oxygen and hydrogen. But takes an engineer to make a controlled massive bang that will actually get you somewhere"!

BEB

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Do I remember right, as there are a few different launch systems out there, and only of marginal interest to me, but I seem to recall that these reusable rockets are an order of magnitude cheaper to run than single use machines. And that is an impressive achievement.

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