Falcon 9 Lander games proves how hard it is for SpaceX to recover rockets

SpaceX is one of the most successful of the private space companies that are beige used to ferry supplies to the ISS. SpaceX has been trying to figure out a way to recover the first stage of its rockets by landing them on a platform floating in the middle of the ocean. So far, they haven't been successful in that recovery effort.

If you wandered what's so hard about landing a rocket on a barge in the ocean, you can try your hand at recovering the rocket with a game called Falcon 9 Lander. SpaceX doesn't sponsor this game; it's a browser-based physics puzzler that has you trying to land a digital SpaceX rocket on a platform and is made using Scratch.

Scratch is a platform developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab and it is free to download and use. A Scratch community member called Dixiklo came up with the SpaceX Falcon 9 Lander by redoing a game he had already made called Lunar Lander.

Way back in the day my local mall had a fancy arcade, which was common in the '80s, and a game called Lunar Lander. The point of that game was to land on the surface of the moon and all the game had was a massive silver handle that moved the lander up or down to make a safe landing, these games seem inspired by that '80s original. Download SpaceX Falcon 9 lander here.

SOURCE: Dailydot