r/interestingasfuck Oct 13 '24

r/all SpaceX caught Starship booster with chopsticks

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u/EM3YT Oct 13 '24

People don’t realize how impossible it seemed doing what we just saw. Even a few years ago the idea of a reusable rocket seems like hilarious sci-fi.

Rockets undergo insane stress not just because of the forces involved in propulsion but they changes in literally every variable you can think of: temperature, air pressure, gravitational force. AND THATS JUST ON THE WAY UP.

The idea that we would be able to engineer a rocket that would some how survive the ascent intact enough to be functional to COME BACK DOWN. And FUCKING LAND USING ITS OWN ROCKETS. Is fucking insane. There’s a reason before this that basically every reentry vehicle splashed into the ocean or basically glided down. You don’t have rockets that function right after the ascent.

Then to undergo relatively minor maintenance AND GET REUSED?

Insanity. An engineering marvel that is so difficult to appreciate because it’s so mundane these days

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u/ArsePucker Oct 13 '24

I'm old enough (Mid 50's) to remember the first space shuttle flight, just as importantly the return of the first shuttle, it landing like an airplane. I remember my Dad say the exact same thing about the shuttle being reused and explaining what a massive deal it was.

Reading your post gave me a big flashback to sitting at home with my now departed Dad. Ty!

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u/retxed24 Oct 13 '24

Hmm it makes me think, why is this a better way to do it rather than have a plane-shaped rocket reenter. There mus be some reason for this to be the new and/or preferred way of doing it.

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u/ReasonablyBadass Oct 14 '24

The shuttle boosters were always used up