Any chance they will get video of the legs deploying?
The on board video cameras would give a great view of that! One can only hope.
Since it will be dark, it is an experimental Landing System, it does have innovative, secretive, ITAR stuff, and SpaceX usually is not timely about things, I doubt we will get much info and video from the first stage water landing/crashing anytime soon.
Quote from: Comga on 05/02/2014 04:48 pmThis is not specific to the OG2 mission. Maximizing payload (at the expense of recovery) is not what SpaceX is going to do. The oft stated analogy would be setting the range for a passenger jet at the limit of zero fuel ignoring the FAA or ICAO rules for reserve fuel. You can't charter a plane for such a flight. Somewhere down the road, if SpaceX success at reuseability, expending the rocket to maximize payload will be "heroic" like Doolittle's Raiders. Payload on a reuseable rocket will be less than for the same rocket in expendable mode and SpaceX is going for reuseability.Not heroic, just more expensive. Reusability and expendability both become options, and are priced accordingly. There's no reason for SpaceX to turn down a profitable launch just because it requires them to build a new stage.
This is not specific to the OG2 mission. Maximizing payload (at the expense of recovery) is not what SpaceX is going to do. The oft stated analogy would be setting the range for a passenger jet at the limit of zero fuel ignoring the FAA or ICAO rules for reserve fuel. You can't charter a plane for such a flight. Somewhere down the road, if SpaceX success at reuseability, expending the rocket to maximize payload will be "heroic" like Doolittle's Raiders. Payload on a reuseable rocket will be less than for the same rocket in expendable mode and SpaceX is going for reuseability.
Wouldn't SpaceX come up with a "lifetime" for the first stage measured in number of reuses, then decide once it reaches that point to mark that particular stage as expendable and save it for a launch requiring an expendable?This would seem to have some benefits. 1. A steady accumulation of expendable first stages.2. Assured median lifetime of the reusables.3. Better management of the production lines due to increased lead timesBasically, You would only be producing new units for reuse. Expendables become a benefit of the life expectancy of those stages. The production line could just keep churnng out standardized units at a steady rate.
Quote from: sojourner on 05/02/2014 08:14 pmWouldn't SpaceX come up with a "lifetime" for the first stage measured in number of reuses, then decide once it reaches that point to mark that particular stage as expendable and save it for a launch requiring an expendable?This would seem to have some benefits. 1. A steady accumulation of expendable first stages.2. Assured median lifetime of the reusables.3. Better management of the production lines due to increased lead timesBasically, You would only be producing new units for reuse. Expendables become a benefit of the life expectancy of those stages. The production line could just keep churnng out standardized units at a steady rate.A likely approach. But it may result in no stage ever reaching its natural lifespan before it is assigned for a suicide mission.