On 17 January 2015 at 23:12, Tamas Rudnai wrote: > That was almost side ways, it was not just "came down too hard". They > should practice on Lunar Lander a bit more > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DsHtLAz2C68M > > The official story is that they ran low on thruster propellant. (I could add "at the end" but it's the end where you run short :-) ). If you've seen any footage of them landing it normally it is extremely well controlled. About 10 years ago DCX showed a glimpse of what we all knew could be done. And wasthen scratched. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-X About 5? years ago John Carmack showed that anyone with a few spare tens of thousands of dollars to start (and rather more to follow) could do in the back lot http://www.parabolicarc.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/armadillo_vehicle.jp= g (John said it cost him about $2m all up to achieve what he did - amazingly good) And now we have real live first stages about to start doing fly-back and land. Yee ha. That's rather rapid progress, when there's not a war actively involved in pushing priorities. Russell --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .