No... surely they didn't engineer new, retractable legs only to require they be removed for transport... say it isn't so!Wait, transport where: around the Cape/KSC, or across the country?
When that rocket came back, like yesterday [with NROl-76], it’s smoking, it’s sitting there smoking; we burned a lot of the ablative [material] on it; we have to remove the legs in order to lower it, and reinstall them; it’s not a quick turn. What we want is like an aircraft; you know, it pulls into the airport, the people get off, they fuel it up while the people are getting back on, they do some checks, you know; some inspections, and everything looks good and you go again. And that’s where we want to get to.The Block 5 Falcon rocket that we’re rolling out later this year is going to have a reusable thermal protection on it; so we don’t burn up the heat shielding on it. And it’s going to have a much better landing legs that just fold up and; just drop the rocket, fold the legs, ship it, fold the legs out when it lands.
Sorry for deploying the batsignal here, but if any of our marine sleuths can chase after the news that Blue Origin has bought and is currently refitting their landing ship that would be swell...
OCISLY seems to be slanted today.GO Pursuit just started up its engine.
Looked the same yesterday..
Quote from: Semmel on 06/21/2018 11:07 pmLooked the same yesterday..Looks like we chose the same table. Or in my case the staff at Fishlips pointed me to it.
While we're twiddling our thumbs in the ASDS thread, maybe we should start an office pool picking the date when SpaceX reveals the hitherto-mysterious A Shortfall of Gravitas. I'm guessing we'll get a drone pic from Elon introducing it sometime this year, but that leaves 200+ days of possibility.The other topic of speculation is where it's being built. A source in bayou country says no one (s)he talks to down there knows anything. So it's status quo ignoramus.
Found a couple of YouTube videos of JRTI out at sea, presumably testing the Thrustmasters - there is what appears to be propeller wash visible, but one of the four pods is only halfway down.