• TheLight@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    5 months ago

    It’s also worth noting it was always supposed to land with the solar panels on its side, the issue is that they ended up pointing west (in the shade, not producing power) instead of to the east (towards the sun).

    The fact that it still handled the asymmetrical thrust after the nozzle broke off one of its two engines to make it down in one piece, and only the orientation happened to be wrong, is still a great achievement.

    If the hardware survives the chill (heaters not running from lack of power) it might still resume its mission when the sun changes position in the sky and the panels start getting light.