Test flight altuitude

On Sun, 24 Jan 2021 08:03:44 -0500, Jeff Findley wrote:

In article ,
says...

SN8 was tested to 12.5km and highly succesfull from launch right up
until landing legs touch ground.

I am curious on why SN9's test flight would be an indetical repeat
instead of pushing the limits in the areas whene SN8 aced its test.

Because standard experimental practice is to only change one variable so
you can compare the results of two tests. In this case, they've made
changes which impact the final landing burn. So, they're keeping
everything else the same. Once they stick the landing, then they'll
expand the rest of the flight envelope.


That's a goal - but this is an analog world, after all, and it's not
always, or often, possible or practical to achieve that level of
isolation without disturbing the rest of the system(s) in unpredictable
ways, for suitable levels of complexity.

--
Pete Stickney
From the Foothills of the Florida Alps