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ninjamayo | 5 years ago

SpaceX seems to have mastered the belly flop. Landing is getting there.

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Diederich|5 years ago

> seems to have mastered the belly flop

Seriously! They nailed that part on the first and every attempt. That by itself is pretty amazing.

emkoemko|5 years ago

didn't the NASA have a rocket doing these type of manoeuvres multiple times a day? in like the early 90's?

Game_Ender|5 years ago

It was the Delta Clipper (DC-X) [0] and that was actually like the SpaceX, grasshopper. It stayed upright, translated hovered and came back to land.

Starship has flaps, a low terminal velocity belly flop maneuver, and then a rotation up to landing only a few hundred meters up. They definitely build on each other, but this is more impressive.

0 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-X

Diederich|5 years ago

That sounds pretty neat; I'd love to read more about it if you recall the name.

mickdarling|5 years ago

How well the Starship handles Hypersonic reentry and the belly flopping at speed will be spectacular to see.