I actually read the whole thing! Now my eyes need a rest.Hitting the barge did something that a software wave off wouldn't accomplish nearly so well. It added one data point demonstrating that the system can reliably get to a landing point without (or at lesser risk of) obliterating people or property outside the designated LZ. That is valuable to SpaceX in getting permission to bring it in to LC 13, and probably more valuable than the equipment that got scuffed up in the process. This last launch (DSCOVR) was said to be within 10M, but that's less convincing at a gut level than visually seeing the target and the fireball in the same frame.



I see your point in that regard, for the first attempt. Though I'm not so sure they might have knowingly chosen for that result if they had been given the choice of only two bad outcomes (the F9R is going to be lost no matter what. Do you want it to be lost alone, or crash it into the barge, requiring repairs that may affect the next mission?).But do they need to be willing to crash into the ASDS multiple times in the future too? The wave-off last week sort of indicates they no longer need to try to literally "hit" the barge for brownie points with the commander of the Eastern Test Range. I think it would be more a sign of desperation (or curious lack of software programming) than cleverness if they continued with F9R's crashing into the barge rather than landing 50 to 100 meters (or so) away from the barge if the software could recognize it was impossible to maneuver enough to safely land on the barge.I'm beginning to think maybe they need to rename the ASDS "Mister Bill"."Oh, nooo.... they're gonna be mean to me...." - *Two landing missions at sea, returning damaged both times (for vastly different reasons). They don't need to repeat those again, they need to learn. In the more recent case, perhaps learn not to send the ASDS out to sea, or recall it early, when the weather forecast is that bad (I do not know how much lead time they had on the weather being forecast to be as bad as that, or how reliable they may have felt such forecast might have been). In theory it can be beefed up to withstand waves like that, but if the F9R cannot land on it in weather like that, there is little point in it being there (Unless as another "Mister Bill" crash landing data point). Beefing it up would be good in general though, in case it is stuck out at sea when weather gets worse than expected.- George Gassaway* - very old Saturday Night Live reference. Google it if you don't get it.