Musk blames SpaceX rocket landing FAIL on lazy 'throttle valve response'

theregister.co.uk ^ | Kelly Fiveash

[BenLurkin]

Billionaire biz baron Elon Musk has revealed a few more details about why SpaceX's latest attempt to land a rocket in one piece at sea had failed.

The Register reported on the drama as it unfolded on Tuesday. Once again, Falcon 9 successfully launched the capsule payload to 'nauts on the International Space Station, only for the rocket to hit the "just read the instructions" deck hard on its shaky return to Earth.

[SunkenCiv]

Ghost of the past: McGregor rocket test site before SpaceX, with Beal Aerospace
http://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/2uq0h6/ghost_of_the_past_mcgregor_rocket_test_site/

Here’s a pic showing the BA-810 firing on the test stand:
http://hydrogen-peroxide.us/history-US-Beal-Aerospace/BA-2_stage-2-hot-fire.jpg

[SunkenCiv]

Oh, my mistake, Beal started in 1997, and the BA-810 test firing was only *three* years later, in 2000.

[SunkenCiv]

:’) My all-time favorite TV spacecraft is still the Fireball XL5. The same track launch idea was used in Gerry’s later show, Space 1999.

[right way right]

They should higher me, I know how to adjust throttle springs.
I am 51 and too many jobs in the Obama economy and I can’t get anybody to higher me now.

[The Cajun]

The one I remember from the late 50's is "Men into Space", with the adventures of Col. McCaulley (sp?).

Think it only ran a season or two.
Had the old V2 looking rocket landing a$$ first on the moon, etc.

[zzwhale]

lazy ..... isnt that racist

[LS]

Except the ultimate goal needs to be not landing “butt-first” but on a normal airplane runway.

[BwanaNdege]

They will eventually make this landing. When they do, it will deserve the Collier Trophy for the most outstanding achievement in Aviation for the year.

You are exactly correct when you said “they had to bring yaw and pitch angles and yaw and pitch angular velocities to zero at the same time that they got velocity and vertical rate of decent to zero, “

I believe this was what threw them off on this landing. Perhaps the barge position reference data is not sufficiently gyro stabilized and the slight rocking is confusing the sensors on the booster. They have managed to “stick” the landings on dry ground, though that was from an initial altitude of 2500’ or so.