Space personality Tim Dodd has delivered a scalding critique of Chinese start-up Nayuta Space’s plans for a horizontal rocket landing.
Nayuta shared its proposals for a reusable rocket on its WeChat account, claiming “you can’t defeat a strong opponent simply by following their footsteps and imitating their techniques”.
But Dodd, who runs the “Everyday Astronnaut” brand pointed out a number of engineering issues with the horizontal landing approach.
He said the boosters are designed for vertical strength and that horizontal landing “adds a lot of extra mass and considerations”.
“The animation shows the booster flying more horizontally which is not something dihedral actuating flaps would be good at. They’re good for maintaining orientation belly-ish first when they are perpendicular to wind flow, not parallel. In fact, I’ll bet grid fins and using the fuselage as a lifting surface might have better cross range capabilities,” he said on X.
Dodd also pointed out the horizontal landing requires additional engines which have no other use in flight; and that rockets like Starship and Electron can survive re-entry by “pencil diving” through the atmosphere without a re-entry burn.
Dodd wished the team luck, concluding with “prove me wrong!”
Nayuta said the horizontal approach has passed the initial design stage and has a sound aerodynamic grounding, claiming the approach will reduce fuel consumption. “Taking the Falcon 9 as an example, the first stage of the rocket needs to reserve about 38 tons of fuel, accounting for 10% of the first stage propellant. If the ADHL recovery technology is used, the recovery process will be one ignition, the ignition time is 10-20 seconds , and the fuel consumption is about 3 tons, which reduces the fuel loss by about 92%,” the firm said on its WeChat page.
Lower fuel consumption and shorter rocket burns translate to longer engine life and larger payloads, the firm said.
