will Space X land rocket cells today?

[Badger]

Well yesterday's launch was scrubbed due to weather.
Will todays launch be a go? If so how will the landing attempt be?

Today's attempt is at 4:10 EST.
http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

 

[Jim Logajan]

I commend SpaceX for their noble attempt at vertical landings...

BUT....

They need to follow the business model of the Thiokol SRB's from the shuttle....

1- Install chutes to let it land in the drink...

2- Capture it and tow in back to port.. ( there are even docking areas already in place to accept and lift the rocket)

3- Clean /flush/ refurbish the stage.. Reload propellant and position it for the next launch.

Very quick turnaround too...


Easy Pleasy....

They tried it that way. Didn't work.

Extracted the following from this article from 2001:
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/09/falcon-rockets-to-land-on-thei.html"SpaceX's original concept for first-stage recovery and reuse didn't work and apparently is being abandoned. The original concept seemed simple: the spent first stage would parachute down to a splashdown offshore, where it would be recovered by boat and hauled back to shore for refurbishment and reuse. There were some obvious questions about how well a rocket stage would survive being soaked in seawater, which is quite corrosive; perhaps only selected components would be reusable, not the whole stage. (Yes, NASA recovered the shuttle SRBs the same way, but their refurbishment process was so labour-intensive that it's not clear it ever really saved them any money.)
Overall, the idea seemed like a clumsy makeshift, and some doubted that there would be much real benefit, but it didn't seem ridiculous – just challenging.
The only problem was, it didn't work. At the Space Access conference in April, Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president, admitted: "We have recovered pieces of the first stages." The first stages weren't even getting as far as deploying their parachutes – they were breaking up during atmospheric re-entry.
So it was back to the drawing board for SpaceX. And the new plan actually seems much more promising. After the upper stages separate from it, the nearly-empty first stage will reignite some of its engines to turn around and come back to its launch site, and will then land vertically on rocket power, like the experimental DC-X and the private rockets competing in NASA's Lunar Lander Challenge. In due time, SpaceX aims to have the second stage also re-enter behind a heat shield on its nose, and do the same vertical rocket landing."

 

[Jim Logajan]

http://gcaptain.com/spacex-rocket-landing-in-hd-video/

With clear video I maintain the way to best deal with this is a 100,000 hp water jet system. The range of motion required is too large for just a hydraulic deck.

SpaceX has released yet another video, this time a view of the landing from the barge: