/sci/ - Science & Math

>>12054339
This is a great idea. I always wondered if SpaceX could fit a dragon heat shield to the “top” of Falcon 9 Stage 2 and place some landing legs facing “up” near it. Stage 2 could then deorbit using its normal deorbit burn, but would stay oriented by a series of titanium fins near the base of S2. As the vehicle reaches transonic speeds it can then deploy air brakes and then parachutes then land with its legs out but upside down. If needed, it could fire a SRB on landing like soyuz.

Dragon has like 51 heat shield tiles that are 50 kg each or so, plus around 1000 kilos for the legs, 1000 for the parachute, and fins. It would have a penalty of like 4 tons in the vehicle, which is enough for a Falcon Heavy to boost 25 tons into LEO while being fully reusable.

>Go to watch any video about the Apollo missions
>Comments are full of people saying it was faked
>Go to watch any video about the ISS in LEO
>Literal FLATEARTHERS shitting it up

It’s all so tiresome

>>7549680