JetBuddy wrote:No fancy pants landing on this one either?
Are they expending the last of the Block 3 boosters that won't be upgraded? And if so, why are they launching them with landing legs and gridfins (expensive), only to do a simulated re-entry procedure? Why not land them?
In the stream it was said they were experimenting with a new landing procedure. I expect the risk was high enough to make it not worth attempting a recovery of the booster. The booster was also one of the older blocks and I believe the aim right now is to standardise on the Block 5 booster. So any earlier ones will be scrapped after reuse or used for these sorts of experiments.