Not necessarily, the launch tower is something like a half billion dollar piece of infrastructure and if it had been damaged or leveled it would have been an enormous setback in terms of money and time, as the second tower is nowhere near ready
The landing pad wasn’t really at risk. If they had hit it it would have been relatively low speed, by the time it was at the catch attempt it was at like 30 km/h or something. Hitting a big steel object at that speed would have probably done more damage to the booster than anything else
They could have tried again with another booster and landing pad.
Not necessarily, the launch tower is something like a half billion dollar piece of infrastructure and if it had been damaged or leveled it would have been an enormous setback in terms of money and time, as the second tower is nowhere near ready
Trying again doesn’t necessarily mean trying again right away.
I think you’ve got too many zeros on your price estimate, no? The tower is huge, but there’s no way it costs five hundred million dollars.
My numbers are correct
Are you including the R&D costs? Best estimates I’ve seen for a mechzilla put labour and materials between 65-95 million USD
The landing pad wasn’t really at risk. If they had hit it it would have been relatively low speed, by the time it was at the catch attempt it was at like 30 km/h or something. Hitting a big steel object at that speed would have probably done more damage to the booster than anything else