Quote:
Originally Posted by DaFace
I just realized the coolest part of that photo. If you zoom in at full resolution....
You can actually see the first stage starting its "flip" while the second stage continues onward. Pretty cool. |
I get forward momentum, maintaining energy in a turn, centrifugal force, centripetal force, and all jazz, but after they use the cold-gas release to flip it, I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around how does a rocket get going back the other way to make it back over land (in the near weightlessness it's in)? At least not without another burn, or unless the flip is more of a slow turn to allow momentum to ultimately send you back the other way?