Success! SpaceX lands a rocket on a drone ship at sea for the first time ever | TechRadar
http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of- ... ea-1318643

good to see that it was a success i also hope the BEAM that is about to be delivered works as well ...

Impressive.

I assume there must be a reason for them to try and land on a moving platform rather than something static on dry land.

Fundamentally, it's to do with speed. Essentially the faster the rocket comes down, the bigger any errors in it's navigation of the descent are magnified. Having a movable platform to land on means the landing pad can move to compensate for any extra error in the landing trajectory (and having it at sea you're not accidentally going to land on an orphanage, say), which means the space-X rockets can come down quicker, which means they need less fuel to slow them as they come down. So they're cheaper to fly.

I'm not sure what economies of scale are required for the cost saving to balance out the cost of developing a 'drone barge' but I assume someone's done the maths.

Jonathan

Makes sense.
I guess there's also a somewhat greater chance of recovering something that splashes down if it misses the platform (depending how deep the water is) and something that smacks down into the ground.

It's also the fact that it only has so much fuel left after he launch. Depending on the speed and direction it has to go it may not have enough fuel to get back to land. They will always land on land if they can get to land but they can't always do it.


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