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Old 4th Mar 2021, 16:02
  #90 (permalink)  
A_Van
 
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Originally Posted by lomapaseo
I don't get why the fixation on the legs. It seems obvious from the views that the fuel leak and fire existed before landing and that it sat percolating until it blew.
....
Absolutely agree. The problem with leg(s) seemed to come later.
As a general comment, of course they do progress from one flight to another. But calling it great success appears too optimistic.
Progress is obvious in the area of flight control, i.e. after some failures they put the "tube" on the pad accurately and softly. But at the expense of the whole machine itself. In "good old days" such costs would not be accepted, but as correctly mentioned above - if they have nearly endless funding, the rules of the game differ.

Nevertheless, if this craft is supposed to launch many crew members and even "passengers", all those explosions raise quite some concern. If they transported only cargo and fuel, every second one could be lost if they can produce them so quickly. But the first explosion with humans will bury the programme along with its name.
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