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If you watch the last few frames, it looks like the ship indeed landed. From the perspective that for a split second the entire vehicle was upright and in touch with the ground, that is. I’m not one to be a pedant, but you can claim a landing if you squint at it long enough.

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Sure, it's a hard-landing or crash-landing. The vehicle was obviously under control but not making enough thrust for a soft touch down.

a) "Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing" b) "Any landing where you can re-use the equipment again is a great landing"

Old aviation sayings. :) Oh well. ;)

Also "you can only ever tie the altitude record for lowest flight."

That one's not actually true though, e.g. the lowest-altitude formation-flight record currently stands at -422m (over the dead sea).

Has anyone ever tried to top that?

Well, it wouldn't really be 'topping' it would it?

I don't think its really possible to fly any lower. The dead sea is the lowest place on earth, and -422m is even pushing that as it must have been a very dry season when they did the flight. Unless the dead sea evaporates even lower, flying below -422m is going to be pretty hard.

In AGL, or above ground level, it's still 0.

Don't forget "Takeoff is optional but landing is mandatory" :)

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