04-25-2023, 11:01 PM
Yeah, TomK, that's how it's historically worked. You just drop the booster as garbage behind you and say goodbye to it. Saturn V, and so many others. SpaceX is trying to bring the booster back and have it touchdown, so it needs to manuver AND preserve enough fuel to do so and retro burn into a soft touchdown. No small feat. I think at this point the exact details of how that ending alters the typical separation step, is conjecture, and I'm guilty of quite a bit of that.
In any case, the story has now shifted to two other things, which going forward are going to be more important for the future of this program.
1. The launch pad is wrecked. Not damaged, pretty much destroyed. Nothing blew up. The power of this rocket was enough to effectively disintegeate the concrete base of the pad in the 2-3 seconds it was burning before it cleared the tower. Seems NASA had the right idea 60 years ago when they had a diversion system for the rocket exhaust, along with a water dousing system.
2. The FAA is seriously pissed about everything that came back down after the rocket blew up (or self destructed, who cares).
In any case, the story has now shifted to two other things, which going forward are going to be more important for the future of this program.
1. The launch pad is wrecked. Not damaged, pretty much destroyed. Nothing blew up. The power of this rocket was enough to effectively disintegeate the concrete base of the pad in the 2-3 seconds it was burning before it cleared the tower. Seems NASA had the right idea 60 years ago when they had a diversion system for the rocket exhaust, along with a water dousing system.
2. The FAA is seriously pissed about everything that came back down after the rocket blew up (or self destructed, who cares).