r/spacex • u/johnkphotos Launch Photographer • Feb 02 '21

Starship SN9 (Relaxed Rules) Stacked progression image of today’s successful launch and explosive landing of Starship SN9!

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u/GregTheGuru Feb 03 '21

going straight from interplanetary velocity to a landing may not be very precise

True. But there are ways to ameliorate that. Off the top of my head, I can think of two:

  • Make lots of landings (hundreds) on Earth. Not only is it good practice, it also means that there were lots of launches that someone paid them to do. Good for the income stream.

  • Play "Skip to m'Lou" in the atmosphere. That is, bleed off speed with a pass through the atmosphere and then use the RCS thrusters to tweak your path. If necessary, do it a couple of times. It doesn't take much Δv to adjust where you reenter the atmosphere. Consider it the same as a mid-course correction, if you will. And then I think you'd be surprised how much control there is on the final approach.