The aerospace field is far from simple as we imagine, and doing this is for safety.
Those who understand the aerospace field know that no matter it’s the previous Chang’e-5 landing or Shenzhou spacecraft, after landing, they all need to be searched on a large scale. Finally, the landing point is determined and then the deployment is carried out.
Many people wonder, why don’t we directly install a locator on the return capsule? In this way, you can directly lock the position, and there is no need for a large team to search.
For this question, the first point to distinguish is that what we are talking about is mainly for spacecraft return capsules, not space shuttles. For example, NASA’s space shuttles actually carry locators, which are basically the same as our ordinary passenger aircraft. As long as there are no accidents, they will definitely land in designated areas.
That’s because space shuttles need to be reused. What if they are allowed to land randomly and get damaged or fall into a canyon? The loss would be huge, as they are so expensive (generally costing over $500 million each, not including…
