![]() In May 2018, SpaceX introduced a souped-up version of its flagship Falcon 9 rocket. But occasionally, the company needs to build new boosters to replenish its fleet. Reusability is key to SpaceX's long-term vision, which involves making ambitious exploration feats feasible by slashing the cost of spaceflight. People now ask why SpaceX is flying new rockets when they once questioned why the company would fly used ones, he noted. "It's interesting to see how things have changed in the world of space," Koenigsmann said during a prelaunch news briefing Thursday (May 2). According to Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX’s vice president of flight reliability, this does not signal a company trend away from rocket reuse. Just like with December’s CRS-16 mission, the rocket featured in today’s flight was a shiny new Falcon 9. SpaceX officials warned residents beforehand that sonic booms could echo overhead as the booster made the downward trek through the atmosphere.Īn electrical issue with the drone ship, by the way, pushed the launch from yesterday (May 3) to today. This was the closest to shore a drone ship has caught a rocket to date, and onlookers were treated to a dazzling view as the booster fired its engines to land. Blue Origin, a company owned by Jeff Bezos, is also working on reusable rocket systems, and has successfully landed its New Shepard rocket on the ground multiple times.The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket returns to Earth for a landing on a ship at sea (left) while the upper stage continues carrying the robotic Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station on May 4, 2019. The name of the game here is making spaceflight cheaper by developing reusable rockets that can ferry people and cargo into orbit, instead of spending millions of dollars building new launch rockets. ![]() “It’s still quite tricky to land on a ship…it’s quite a tiny target.” “We thought it was more likely than not that this mission would work, but still probably have a 1/3 chance of failure,” Musk said. Musk said that before today’s launch, company members were placing the odds of success at 2:1. Previous attempts failed when earlier rockets toppled over and experienced a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” (i.e., they exploded). ![]() It’s the fifth time SpaceX has tried to park a rocket on a ship in 2015, the company successfully set a rocket back down on the ground, but landing at sea is much trickier than landing on…land…because the ocean is a moving beast. To space and back, in less than nine minutes? Hello, future. Dragon in good orbit,” Space X tweeted, in what must be the most understated announcement of the successful landing to cross our feed. ![]() “The 1st stage of the Falcon 9 just landed on our ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ droneship. As it approached the drone ship, named “Of Course I Still Love You,” the Falcon 9 righted itself, slowed down, and landed perfectly. “The rocket landed instead of putting a hole in the ship, or tipping over, so we’re really excited about that,” said SpaceX founder Elon Musk at a press conference after the landing.Īfter launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the SpaceX rocket boosted its payload-carrying Dragon capsule toward low Earth orbit, then turned around and headed for home about 4.5 minutes after launch. It’s the first time anyone has done this, and it signals a step forward in making spaceflight significantly cheaper. SpaceX launched a bouncy house to the International Space Station on Friday-and then successfully turned the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket around, flew it back to Earth, and parked it on a drone ship floating 185 miles (300 kilometers) off the U.S. ![]()
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