Chris Bergin has a pretty detailed account. The focus still seems to be on a slow response in the throttle valve.
He seems to be ignoring Aaron Mehta’s interview with Gwynne last week, though, in which she said the next attempt would probably be on land.
“A successful landing during the CRS-7 mission may also allow for the first projected attempt to return a stage to land, with the rocket tasked with lofting the Jason-3 satellite provisionally pencilled for a debute landing at SLC-4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base.”
The paragraph or so before this was how they felt they’d have the drone ready to go by CRS-7.
So… Sounds like the thinking was that they would -not- have the ship ready before CRS-7 (making the land attempt ‘next’) … but now they -do- think the ship will be ready? Maybe?
Forgive what may be a potentially stupid question, as my interest in reusable rockets is (at the moment) is merely casual, and I don’t know every detail of SpaceX’s operations: Just where is the rocket controlled from, the barge or mission control?
“Just where is the rocket controlled from, the barge or mission control?”
AFAIK, it’s controlled by the software on the rocket itself. Mission Control is just there to watch and to press a big red button (figuratively) if things go too far out of parameter. And even then, I believe the software and hardware are designed to self-abort in certain extreme conditions.
So the delay in response from the throttle is purely a hardware issue on the rocket itself; there isn’t a mission controller or deckhand with his/her paws fixed to a joystick trying to guide the rocket in “Lunar Lander” style, with the inherent delays caused by transmission of the commands.
Ah, Lunar Lander. Kids today with their Madden and their Final Fantasy have no idea.
Look, I know that AI has come a long way, and there’s probably miles and miles of code in those rockets’ computers, but like they said in “The Right Stuff”, it’s Spam in a Can vs. Buck Rogers. Someone should be at the joystick as a last resort.