I must assume that Blue Origin will be watching very closely, as well.
They were already in production and had parts in inventory for everything but the steel legs. What took time was probably writing the software.
Which is funny because having a company in production reverses the normal situation where s/w precedes h/w.
They sure don’t waste any time do they? I only expected to see something later next year. Then again most of the work is probably the flight control software and Elon knows more about software than most people so he can navigate the development pitfalls better.
AFAIK they are planning to flip the second stage during reentry on the actual launch vehicle similar to the DC-X maneuver. I still think base first reentry is a better idea but given their technological base I can understand why they chose that route.
I guess when they said that Falcon 9 had been built for reusability from day 1, they meant it. All they needed was the legs.
That took less time than I thought…!
I must assume that Blue Origin will be watching very closely, as well.
They were already in production and had parts in inventory for everything but the steel legs. What took time was probably writing the software.
Which is funny because having a company in production reverses the normal situation where s/w precedes h/w.
They sure don’t waste any time do they? I only expected to see something later next year. Then again most of the work is probably the flight control software and Elon knows more about software than most people so he can navigate the development pitfalls better.
AFAIK they are planning to flip the second stage during reentry on the actual launch vehicle similar to the DC-X maneuver. I still think base first reentry is a better idea but given their technological base I can understand why they chose that route.
I guess when they said that Falcon 9 had been built for reusability from day 1, they meant it. All they needed was the legs.