Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I disagree. Falcon 9 is an orbital booster, but only the second stage goes to orbit. The hard part is surviving re-entry, the first stage only barely requires a heat shield.

Dragon would qualify, except it lands on the ocean, so not "US soil".




apparently the hard part is getting the control systems and landing legs simultaneously lightweight enough and reliable enough, if i correctly understand spacex's long history of failing to land rockets (which i may not, since all i know is a small sample of what they've published)

agreed about dragon. those fuckers do orbit!


The hard part for landing a suborbital rocket vertically is that. The hard part of landing anything from orbit is still definitely the re-entry.


oh, sorry, you're right. a few rocks do survive re-entry every day without the benefit of any engineering at all, but they have a very, very low success rate




Consider applying for YC's W25 batch! Applications are open till Nov 12.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: