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Re:SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage by grecy on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @04:12PM (#8071303)
> "We will attempt our next water landing on flight 13 of Falcon 9, but with a low probability of success."

I'm wondering why the next water landing has a low probability of success?

Re:SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage by avenueevergreen on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @04:22PM (#8071358)
This is not confirmed by SpaceX, but has been floating around the internet as the suspected reason.

Last year, SpaceX attempted a first stage water landing, but was not successful. Their two most recent successes on this front had at least two hardware differences from that old attempt: landing legs and heavier duty RCS thrusters. However, due to some combination of manufacturing and launch scheduling, an old core without these improvements, similar to their attempt last year, will be flying on flight 13.

Re:SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage by The_Double on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @04:20PM (#8071347)
Flight 13 will be a flight to ISS on a core without landing legs and other modifications for landing. Apparently, they swapped cores earlier, and now they have a rocket left without legs.
Re:SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage by davidrhunt on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @04:14PM (#8071315)
I believe it is because of this:

> However, our next couple launches are for very high velocity geostationary satellite missions, which don’t allow enough residual propellant for landing.

Based on the press release they plan on using Falcon Heavy for this type of launch in the future but it sounds like that project isn't ready for primetime yet.

Re:SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage by grecy on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @04:18PM (#8071332)
I took that statement to mean they can't even attempt a landing on the next couple of launches because there will not be enough residual propellant for landing.

And then the next statement, I assume, refers to the next launches where they can attempt a landing.

EDIT: my assumption is confirmed here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_launches

Next up are flights 11 and 12, which can't be landed.

Then 13 has the "low probability of success".

Re:SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage by greglindahl on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @04:57PM (#8071516)
Funny that you cite Wikipedia, which is citing... the link that this HN discussion points to.
Re:SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage by nkoren on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @07:01PM (#8072066)
Yeah, I actually made that particular edit to Wikipedia about 20 minutes before seeing it cited as a _verification_ of that article, here. Funny to see one of those infamous internet self-confirmation loops get established in near-realtime...
Re:SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage by ceejayoz on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @04:13PM (#8071311)
Might be the flight path or payload limitations.
Re:SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage by andrewtbham on Tuesday July 22, 2014 @04:13PM (#8071310)
probably because it's another water landing
Re:SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage by seanflyon on Wednesday July 23, 2014 @05:46PM (#8077120)
The last 2 water landings have been successful.