What about a water recovery, after stage separation?There might be value in recovering a stage for fault diagnosis and partial reuse.
Perhaps (?!) the payload could survive and be recovered, and it's the most valuable piece of the rocket...
Not all failures are graceful.
It's interesting how arguments continue even when its been accepted that the thing being argued about is impossible.
Quote from: mlindner on 11/10/2013 04:07 amIt's interesting how arguments continue even when its been accepted that the thing being argued about is impossible....impossible isn't accurate. Someday, reusable launch vehicles /will/ have intact abort capability.
Quote from: Robotbeat on 11/11/2013 02:07 amQuote from: mlindner on 11/10/2013 04:07 amIt's interesting how arguments continue even when its been accepted that the thing being argued about is impossible....impossible isn't accurate. Someday, reusable launch vehicles /will/ have intact abort capability.I'll very certain that they won't.Payloads - maybe. Maybe some.Vehicles? I can't see how or why.
Quote from: meekGee on 11/11/2013 02:20 amQuote from: Robotbeat on 11/11/2013 02:07 amQuote from: mlindner on 11/10/2013 04:07 amIt's interesting how arguments continue even when its been accepted that the thing being argued about is impossible....impossible isn't accurate. Someday, reusable launch vehicles /will/ have intact abort capability.I'll very certain that they won't.Payloads - maybe. Maybe some.Vehicles? I can't see how or why.Sigh... People in this thread keep talking across each other with different assumptions (F9R vs future RLV).And MeekGee, you really cant imagine a future SSTO RLV with intact abort? (That's pretty much what it would take) It seems pretty narrow minded to exclude such a possibility.