from Hacker News

SpaceX Falcon 9 booster 'tipped over' into the ocean during landing

by mikro2nd on 8/29/24, 7:16 AM with 38 comments

• by h_tbob on 8/29/24, 12:51 PM

  I watched Jeff bezos’s tour of blue origin facility with everyday astronaut.

  He gave the reasoning for why New Glen has more than three legs (I think 6)

  He said that the more legs you have, the smaller each leg has to reach out to give the same probability of tipping over. So there’s a formula to pick the best number of legs given their weight etc.

  Interestingly he said they picked their number not just for that but also because it went well with the engine distribution.

• by cherioo on 8/29/24, 7:21 AM

  It’s amazing how this is now the news, not when it successfully lands!

• by curiousObject on 8/29/24, 7:32 AM

  This is the second recent glitch in a SpaceX mission. The other, more serious, was the failure of a Starlink Falcon 9 to quite reach a viable orbit because of an oxygen leak on an engine.

  These minor blips only stand out in the context of SpaceX’s unprecedented consistency, which surpasses anyone else. But, if they have another snafu soon, maybe it could hint at a slight decline in their normal technical excellence?

  Edit : OTOH, this was launch 23 of that booster, as mentioned by @gregoriol, so I for one might see that as a successful test discovery of the reuse limits of the structure. And also, the F9 that didn’t reach orbit probably wouldn’t have threatened the lives of a human crew, although it would have scrubbed their mission.

• by raverbashing on 8/29/24, 7:31 AM

  As much as I think the FAA response might be a bit unfair, I think the issue here is what is promised vs delivered

  Even with a disposable booster you want it to follow a certain flight path and be discarded at a given area.

  If you promised that it will land and it doesn't, even if it is inconsequential to the rest of the mission, well...