What are you talking about? Too tall? It's already proven that it can land this tall a rocket on land. Why land on a barge? So it can be recovered when the dV demands eliminate the possibility of a return to a ground based landing site.
No insurance claim needed, as this is their engineering testing, with a high chance of failure. The alternative is to drop it in the sea anyway, for a guaranteed loss. So your comments make no sense.
OK... a rocket on some legs (how big can you make them before it impacts badly on your Dv) land on a barge... WOW great stuff.. then mother nature says ..'watch this boyo'.. a slightly bigger swell than normal due to de/constructive wave interference... throw in a bit of a sea breeze... totalise all the forces.. and... Do I really have to spell this out :tiphat:
That leg looked like it gave way after being subjected to the forces resulting from the wave motion = size of stage ?
More legs will make little difference as the domino effect will tear them all... need stronger heavier (Dv) legs.
So what if it landed on land ok..great stuff for SpaceX...
Of course it can land on the spot marked X...buuuutttt landing at sea - What we have here is a 'guaranteed disaster'.. So why even do it in the first place.. The penny drops - to get rid of the stage, after all it's paid for itself and a little bit extra from a claim or two ??
OK! so a stage does land on a barge in one piece... great.
The success rate would be interesting as launches will be affected by another factor - sea conditions a few miles away. This is not something you really want if you need a consistent launch rate = $$$.
:facepalm: