back to article Legs in 2015: SpaceX Falcon's landing put on hold

NASA and SpaceX have announced that the firm’s fifth ISS resupply mission - which was also the first test of its ground-breaking leggy landing on a floating platform - will be postponed until next year. The Falcon 9 rocket that boosts the Dragon cargo-craft to the International Space Station was supposed to test its X-wing- …

  1. Beachrider

    Hot fire test failure...

    It is good that SpaceX does this test. Not so good that there are problems with the results. With Orbital now turning over some launches to ULA Titan, this commercial launching shows that this is not yet an activity to take-for-granted.

    1. Swarthy
      Mushroom

      Re: Hot fire test failure...

      Launches are not something to be taken for granted. It is, in fact, rocket science (or rocket engineering, which is even more difficult).

      Had Orbital done the same test, it is quite likely that they wouldn't be turning over launches, and Wallops Island would still be open.

      Icon: for the brave Kerbals who have gone before.

  2. Crazy Operations Guy

    "tends to err on the side of caution with each launch."

    If only software companies did the same...

    1. et tu, brute?
      Thumb Up

      Re: "tends to err on the side of caution with each launch."

      Pity I can only give you one upvote for that! Such a simple comment, but it deserves at least a hundred upvotes!

    2. Kharkov
      Trollface

      Re: "tends to err on the side of caution with each launch."

      If only rocket companies could do the same thing as software companies...

      "What? We started it up and it crashed? Well, never mind, just switch it off and then switch it back on again, let's see if it's repeatable..."

      "Yeah, it tends to crash a lot but we'll have another version out in a couple of months so, just live with it until then, m'kay?"

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "tends to err on the side of caution with each launch."

        "If only rocket companies could do the same thing as software companies..."

        It's true, software isn't as spectacular when it fails. However, a rocket failure creates but a single disaster...

  3. Benjol

    "beta angle constraints"

    Was ist das?

    1. phuzz Silver badge

      Short version*: it's to do with the angle of the sun and the orbit of the ISS. The ISS is going to be in full sunlight more than it usually is for the next week or two and will consequently be getting hot. Visiting spacecraft may not be able to cope with that level of heat.

      Longer version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_angle

      * shortish, this is sort of rocket science after all.

  4. Pen-y-gors

    I hope the cargo...

    doesn't contain the supplies of turkey, xmas pud etc for the crew, otherwise their Christmas celebrations will be a bit delayed.

  5. DocJames
    Meh

    Units

    More of these damn "feet" thingys - what is this in a scale I can understand, ie double decker buses?

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