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by marvin 4809 days ago
Do you have more information on the "water landing" planned for the next Falcon 9 flight? Why won't the SpaceX team attempt to land it on some sort of floating platform?

Seems to me that this would yield an even better test "for free" and even provide the possibility of recovering the first stage for analysis.
2 comments
JshWright 4809 days ago
The current Falcon 9 first stage doesn't have landing gear. That would make landing it on anything solid... problematic.
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InclinedPlane 4809 days ago
They'd have to add flight worthy landing gear, which hasn't been tested yet and would add weight. This test just uses a straight up stock Falcon 9 v1.1 first stage, so it's super low overhead. Also, they're not sure it'll work. But if it doesn't it just means they end up with what they were expecting, broken up first stage bits in the ocean.

They do plan on retrieving the stage if possible, it should float.

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