/sci/ - Science & Math

>>12084496
They obviously knew but chose not to, because it would shift paradigm. Same why Delta Clipper was doomed single stage instead of two stage.

>>11387211

>>10859217
>Also this, people talk shit about wings being all that because you can land on like four other runways on Earth if you need to, meanwhile Starship can land on LITERALLY any flat piece of ground on the entire planet in an emergency.

Exactly. Runway takeoff/landing was only necessary in the 70s and 80s when we lacked the computer processing power and FADEC technology to make a rocket reliably land using only engine thrust from a down-throttled booster engine to do so. Once the DC-X proved that a rocket could land using the same engines that it used to take off, all winged designs should have been immediately thrown into the dustbin.