- Joined
- Feb 6, 2008
- Messages
- 37,609
- Reaction score
- 2,330
- Points
- 203
- Location
- Wolfsburg
- Preferred Pronouns
- Sire
No. Second. First one lawn darted. No official news I've seen explained why. :shrug:
Hydraulic failure, as far as I read.
This is an apples and oranges comparison. SpaceX is recovering from Mach 10 and suborbital. Blue team went straight up (basically) and recovered. Both are pretty freakin' difficult accomplishments.
Still, when the final landing phase should begin, both scenarios are very similar. The only difference is that the Falcon 9 is wildly tumbling even with the potato mashers. The difference in horizontal velocity is really small, the difference in vertical velocity only by different aerodynamics.
The biggest difference is really just what the stage is supposed to do before landing - and the effects of these requirements on the vehicle shape. The New Shepard is short and looks pretty rigid to me, the Falcon 9 first stage is long and very elastic. When the Falcon 9 wants to turn, the stage bends significantly and the oscillations of the structure make the work of the sensors and control systems a lot harder.
All that does not have so much effect on the New Shepard.