1. This landing procedure is not viable. Restarting an engine in the middle of a rotation like that, fuel sloshing around is really hard. Just restarting an engine in zero G has always been tricky, because the fuel is floating around and doesn't have gravity pulling it to the pump. This case is even more dynamic, and you have to get it right immediately.
or
2. If the raptor engine is too complex to be reliable.
Then again Falcon9 also failed to land many many times early on, and it has become rather routine. Though still not routine enough that you would want to be a passenger riding one down.
please nobody reply with "prototype" or "rapid iteration" we know, we have seen your posts 20,000 times here already :)_
1. This landing procedure is not viable. Restarting an engine in the middle of a rotation like that, fuel sloshing around is really hard. Just restarting an engine in zero G has always been tricky, because the fuel is floating around and doesn't have gravity pulling it to the pump. This case is even more dynamic, and you have to get it right immediately.
or
2. If the raptor engine is too complex to be reliable.
Then again Falcon9 also failed to land many many times early on, and it has become rather routine. Though still not routine enough that you would want to be a passenger riding one down.
please nobody reply with "prototype" or "rapid iteration" we know, we have seen your posts 20,000 times here already :)_