They can be inspected, re-fueled and re-used cheaper than building new ones.
Where they land depends on the payload and fuel requirements. Sometimes they go back and land at the cape, other times they have a couple of unmanned ships in the Atlantic for them to land on.
But I mean why not just put a parachute on them and have them dumped into the water to be recovered? Isn't that how the Space Shuttle's boosters worked?
The Space Shuttle was very expensive and time consuming to refurbish. That includes the boosters. They cost more to refurbish than replace, but economics wasn't a prime driver of Shuttle operations.
Maybe a good analogy is landing a plane at the end of its flight vs dropping it into the ocean on a parachute. Landing is a lot cheaper and quicker to turn around.
Ah ok. Yeah I know they had to check each bath tile on the SS after every launch. I guess that was good given what ended up being the flaws. I've always thought rockets seem kind of backwards compared to the space planes we were promised since at least the 90s. Landing the boosters is weird AF looking but whatever saves money.
I guess I think of them like glorified roman candles. I don't know what's actually in there. I am surprised disposable boosters aren't cheaper though just because that seems like what other people use.
If you land them, you don't have to spend money drying them out and making sure salt water didn't get into sensitive places that are a pain to fix. And as has been pointed out, also faster turn around to just land them.
[ + ] AugustineOfHippo2
[ - ] AugustineOfHippo2 4 points 1.5 yearsNov 1, 2022 17:46:08 ago (+4/-0)
[ + ] lord_nougat
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[ + ] bonghits4jeebus
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[ + ] uvulectomy
[ - ] uvulectomy 3 points 1.5 yearsNov 1, 2022 20:15:33 ago (+3/-0)
Where they land depends on the payload and fuel requirements. Sometimes they go back and land at the cape, other times they have a couple of unmanned ships in the Atlantic for them to land on.
[ + ] bonghits4jeebus
[ - ] bonghits4jeebus 0 points 1.5 yearsNov 1, 2022 20:17:36 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] dominus_stercae
[ - ] dominus_stercae [op] 1 point 1.5 yearsNov 1, 2022 20:35:07 ago (+1/-0)*
Maybe a good analogy is landing a plane at the end of its flight vs dropping it into the ocean on a parachute. Landing is a lot cheaper and quicker to turn around.
[ + ] uvulectomy
[ - ] uvulectomy 1 point 1.5 yearsNov 1, 2022 20:50:06 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] bonghits4jeebus
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[ + ] bonghits4jeebus
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[ + ] uvulectomy
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[ + ]deleted
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[ + ] SumerBreeze
[ - ] SumerBreeze 1 point 1.5 yearsNov 1, 2022 18:21:44 ago (+1/-0)