Quote from: RocketGoBoom on 07/28/2014 05:29 pm Quote from: rcoppola on 07/28/2014 05:04 pm Hmmm, ok, so the F9R lands on this barge. Maybe they do it closer then last time, say 25 miles out. How do they intend to get it back? Have another crane barge with a cradle bolted to the deck standing by to lift it off the landing barge and lay it down on the cradle?





Yeah, this barge strategy doesn't make a lot of sense to me other than as a demo.



We should remember that if SpaceX is not immediately bringing a 1st stage back to the launch site, that there must be a reason why they are landing out on the ocean - they are not doing water landings to generate YouTube revenue. And if they are going to the bother (and risk) of a barge landing, then there must be something they need to see on the stage before they attempt to fly it back to land.



Maybe they want to verify the condition of the center engine? Or the insulation around the engine area, especially if it's going to be traveling further? Or maybe they need to validate how much propellant is left?



I don't know, but they sure seem to think it's important before they attempt a landing back at the launch site.

I think it's much simpler than that. SpaceX has said that getting permission to land on land is lagging behind their reusability efforts and so a landing on a barge out at sea is the next best thing to landing at a landing site that isn't ready yet. It also helps make plainly clear that they have can accurately land on a small target. Landing on a spot in the ocean, even if they claim it's right on the money down to a square foot, isn't as believable. They would also recover the first stage intact and could demonstrate gas and go by transporting the recovered stage to McGregor and reusing it there. That's 2 out of 2 really big things they would prove just by recovering the stage intact, by landing it on a barge. If nothing else, maybe they get valuable data out of it.