SpaceX lands on drone ship

Originally posted by twhitehead
That would be an expensive exercise which, as has been proven, would be unnecessary. You would need hydrolic actuators moving a football sized platform. You are trying to solve an engineering problem that you haven't proven actually exists. Yes the ship clearly moves a lot due to the waves, but is it really a problem needing solving? To what extent does i ...[text shortened]... er, but when the price difference is big enough that becomes harder and harder to get away with.

I think something needs to be done about the stability issue, there was nothing grabbing onto the rocket to hold it, only those little stick legs not even fasteners, it is just sitting there waiting for an accident to happen. Like you say, it would be cheaper to build some kind of restraining device though rather than attempt to stabilize the whole surface of the craft. As it is, any kind of fast squall will tip it over.

Originally posted by sonhouse
I think something needs to be done about the stability issue,...r.

I think only those directly involved can really say to what extent it is an issue. Elon Musk said that it was reasonably stable and that they would weld it to the deck fairly soon after landing. The main questions are to what extent stability issues restrict launch windows and whether that is a problem, and just how big a risk stability issues are in good weather. I don't think we are in a position to answer those questions at present.
Musk also said that as their rockets improves he expects only about a quarter of launches to require an ocean landing. The rest will return to land.

Originally posted by twhitehead
I think only those directly involved can really say to what extent it is an issue. Elon Musk said that it was reasonably stable and that they would weld it to the deck fairly soon after landing. The main questions are to what extent stability issues restrict launch windows and whether that is a problem, and just how big a risk stability issues are in good ...[text shortened]... ects only about a quarter of launches to require an ocean landing. The rest will return to land.

Well, there are always earthquakes🙂