New drone landing ship. No tugs needed. Looks very cool.

Clem72

Clem72

Well-Known Member
Was this to avoid potential loss of life, or to reduce costs? I assume it doesn't matter how "precisely" it can be positioned, since the rocket is doing all of the aiming/course correcting/adjustments.
 
glhs837

glhs837

Power with Control
Clem72 said:
Was this to avoid potential loss of life, or to reduce costs? I assume it doesn't matter how "precisely" it can be positioned, since the rocket is doing all of the aiming/course correcting/adjustments.
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Cost and schedule, no potential loss of life, since there's nobody aboard during transit or landing. After landing, a crew might board to secure the rocket, but they have a robot (called octograbber) than can do that also. And it and the rocket work together. You cant see them here but it has some of the best positioning systems you can buy. This article shows them a bit better, each of those circular housings have a thruster thats lowered on station to precisely station keep. https://spaceexplored.com/2021/05/2...hird-droneship-shows-more-detail-of-the-deck/

Also easy to see in these pics are the octograbbers "hangar" as seen beow in the older droneship, "Of Course I Still Love You", you can see the grabber and the older thrusters. Gilligan and SGI for sure know
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more than I do about such things.
 
D

DaSDGuy

Well-Known Member
I wonder how the gubmint feels about this since it can be positioned in international waters and won't be subject to their oversite or restrictions?
 
glhs837

glhs837

Power with Control
DaSDGuy said:
I wonder how the gubmint feels about this since it can be positioned in international waters and won't be subject to their oversite or restrictions?
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All US based launch companies fall under FAA. And SpaceX has done I think over 80 landings like this.
 
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