Originally Posted By: space.com
For the second time in less than a month, SpaceX has landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a ship at sea.
Chants of "USA! USA! USA!" erupted at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California as the Falcon 9 stuck its landing on the ship, which was stationed about 200 miles (320 kilometers) offshore in the Atlantic Ocean.
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In December, SpaceX brought a Falcon 9 back to Earth on terra firma at Cape Canaveral during the launch of 11 satellites for SpaceX customer Orbcomm, marking the first soft touchdown ever achieved during an orbital liftoff. (SpaceX would prefer to bring all of its rockets down on land, but boosters on some missions cannot carry enough fuel to make it all the back to their launch site, which is why the company is practicing ocean landings.)
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SpaceX also pulled off a landing on "Of Course I Still Love You" last month, during the successful launch of SpaceX's robotic Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station. But the company wasn't expecting success on Friday morning, because the two-stage Falcon 9 had to send JCSAT-14 to a much more distant geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).
"Given this mission's GTO destination, the first stage will be subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating, making a successful landing unlikely," SpaceX representatives wrote in a description of the JCSAT-14 mission.
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These landings are part of SpaceX's effort to develop launch systems that are completely and rapidly reusable — technology that Musk has said could cut the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100. Such price reductions could revolutionize spaceflight, perhaps making Mars colonization economically feasible, according to Musk.
Indeed, SpaceX aims to refly the first stage that landed last month — and, presumably, the one that touched down Friday morning as well. (The booster that landed in December will be displayed at SpaceX headquarters.)
http://www.space.com/32811-spacex-rocket-landing-jcsat-14-launch.html
Originally Posted By: wired.com
SpaceX has landed a freaking rocket on a robot boat in the dark.
Defying its own predictions, the Hawthorne-based commercial spaceflight company has safely brought a Falcon 9 from the edge of space—where it was traveling at nearly six times the speed of sound—to a stationary platform floating several hundred miles off the coast of Florida. Safe and sound.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was skeptical this was possible, because the rocket’s payload, a communications satellite, was heading to an orbital altitude of 22,300 miles. Which means the rocket would be coming home very, very hot. “It wants to melt,” he said at an earlier press event. Just before launch, he put the odds of a successful landing at “maybe even.”
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It’s okay to get excited. In fact, it’s not okay to not get excited. This is amazing. But…but. SpaceX is probably going to fail eventually. Which is cool. Failure is a necessary prerequisite for success. Especially when you’re talking about space. Especially when you’re trying to land rockets on freaking barges in the middle of the night.
Oh yeah, one more thing: The Falcon 9’s payload—a Japanese communications satellite—is making its way to orbit just fine. Mission accomplished, times two.
http://www.wired.com/2016/05/spacex-landed-freaking-rocket-robot-boat-dark
Looks like whatever helps/assists that NASA provided SpaceX some years ago are paying off now and in future. The next importance milestone is bring astronauts to international space station and back to earth, probably in 2017-2018.
SpaceX probably will charge NASA(and USAF) less in future rocket launches since they can reuse their main rocket now.
Perfect landing at center of the barge
For the second time in less than a month, SpaceX has landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a ship at sea.
Chants of "USA! USA! USA!" erupted at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California as the Falcon 9 stuck its landing on the ship, which was stationed about 200 miles (320 kilometers) offshore in the Atlantic Ocean.
Quote:
In December, SpaceX brought a Falcon 9 back to Earth on terra firma at Cape Canaveral during the launch of 11 satellites for SpaceX customer Orbcomm, marking the first soft touchdown ever achieved during an orbital liftoff. (SpaceX would prefer to bring all of its rockets down on land, but boosters on some missions cannot carry enough fuel to make it all the back to their launch site, which is why the company is practicing ocean landings.)
Quote:
SpaceX also pulled off a landing on "Of Course I Still Love You" last month, during the successful launch of SpaceX's robotic Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station. But the company wasn't expecting success on Friday morning, because the two-stage Falcon 9 had to send JCSAT-14 to a much more distant geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).
"Given this mission's GTO destination, the first stage will be subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating, making a successful landing unlikely," SpaceX representatives wrote in a description of the JCSAT-14 mission.
Quote:
These landings are part of SpaceX's effort to develop launch systems that are completely and rapidly reusable — technology that Musk has said could cut the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100. Such price reductions could revolutionize spaceflight, perhaps making Mars colonization economically feasible, according to Musk.
Indeed, SpaceX aims to refly the first stage that landed last month — and, presumably, the one that touched down Friday morning as well. (The booster that landed in December will be displayed at SpaceX headquarters.)
http://www.space.com/32811-spacex-rocket-landing-jcsat-14-launch.html
Originally Posted By: wired.com
SpaceX has landed a freaking rocket on a robot boat in the dark.
Defying its own predictions, the Hawthorne-based commercial spaceflight company has safely brought a Falcon 9 from the edge of space—where it was traveling at nearly six times the speed of sound—to a stationary platform floating several hundred miles off the coast of Florida. Safe and sound.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was skeptical this was possible, because the rocket’s payload, a communications satellite, was heading to an orbital altitude of 22,300 miles. Which means the rocket would be coming home very, very hot. “It wants to melt,” he said at an earlier press event. Just before launch, he put the odds of a successful landing at “maybe even.”
Quote:
It’s okay to get excited. In fact, it’s not okay to not get excited. This is amazing. But…but. SpaceX is probably going to fail eventually. Which is cool. Failure is a necessary prerequisite for success. Especially when you’re talking about space. Especially when you’re trying to land rockets on freaking barges in the middle of the night.
Oh yeah, one more thing: The Falcon 9’s payload—a Japanese communications satellite—is making its way to orbit just fine. Mission accomplished, times two.
http://www.wired.com/2016/05/spacex-landed-freaking-rocket-robot-boat-dark
Looks like whatever helps/assists that NASA provided SpaceX some years ago are paying off now and in future. The next importance milestone is bring astronauts to international space station and back to earth, probably in 2017-2018.
SpaceX probably will charge NASA(and USAF) less in future rocket launches since they can reuse their main rocket now.
Perfect landing at center of the barge
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