Posted on 12/21/2015 8:08:25 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine
The third attempt at a historic reusable-rocket milestone was the charm for SpaceX.
The private spaceflight company brought the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket back to Earth for a soft touchdown tonight (Dec. 21), pulling off history's first-ever rocket landing during an orbital launch. (Blue Origin, the company led by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, landed its New Shepard booster successfully last month, but that occurred during a suborbital test.)
The Falcon 9 blasted off at 8:29 p.m. EST today (0129 GMT on Dec. 22) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, tasked with delivering to orbit 11 spacecraft for the satellite-communications company Orbcomm. The two-stage Falcon 9 separated, and then the rocket's first stage performed a series three "boostback burns," coming down for a pinpoint touchdown at Cape Canaveral. [SpaceX's Epic Falcon 9 Rocket Landing in Pictures]
SpaceX's mission control in Hawthorne, California, erupted in raucous cheers when the first stage came into view of a camera near the landing site — then went even more nuts as the booster stage slowed and touched down successfully at SpaceX's "Landing Zone 1," a facility previously used by the Air Force for rocket and missile testing.
SpaceX had tried to land Falcon 9 first stages twice before, both times on an uncrewed "drone ship" hundreds of miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean. On each occasion — once in January 2015, and then again in April — the booster stage hit its target but came in a little too hard and crashed on the ship's deck.
Today's landing was a milestone moment for SpaceX, which aims to develop fully and rapidly reusable rockets as a way to open the heavens to exploration. Such technology could slash the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100, potentially making Mars colonies economically feasible, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said.
Mars settlement is no idle dream for Musk; he established SpaceX back in 2002 primarily because he wants to help humanity become a multiplanetary species, Musk has repeatedly said.
Today's launch was the first for SpaceX since June 28, when a Falcon 9 broke apart less than three minutes after blasting off from Cape Canaveral, scuttling the seventh uncrewed cargo mission the company is flying to the International Space Station for NASA. (SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion deal to make at least 12 such flights with the Falcon 9 and its robotic Dragon capsule.)
The June failure was likely caused by a faulty steel strut in the Falcon 9 upper stage. Musk has said that, going forward, the company will test every one of the hundreds of such struts that go into each Falcon 9.
SpaceX has also been revamping the Falcon 9 since the accident, adjusting its stage-separation system and electronics, among other features, Musk said.
"I think it's a significantly improved rocket from the last one," he said on Dec. 15 during a talk at the annual winter meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
Today's launch was originally scheduled for Sunday night (Dec. 20), but analyses showed that lifting off tonight provided a 10 percent better chance of landing success, Musk said.
The 11 satellites that launched aboard the Falcon 9 all deployed successfully, and will complete a 17-spacecraft Orbcomm network in low-Earth orbit.
Videos at link.
See this other thread about it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3375370/posts
Other news articles here.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/21/news/companies/spacex-launch-rocket-landing/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/science/spacex-rocket-landing.html?_r=0
http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/news/a18682/spacex-nails-a-vertical-landing-at-cape-canaveral/
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/12/spacex-rtf-core-return-attempt-og2/
Here is the vision Elon and SpaceX have for reusable rockets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSF81yjVbJE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf_-g3UWQ04
I can’t find the video, but he does show the Dragon capsule landing on Mars.
If not, they'll probably be outlawed in the USSA.
A Dragon on Mars! Elon Musk backs Nasa plan to send SpaceX capsule on sample return mission in 2020
15SEP2015
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3235880/Elon-Musk-details-mission-Mars-SpaceX-founder-Nasa-plan-send-Red-Dragon-capsule-sample-return-mission-2020.html
I wouldn’t be surprised if DC somehow puts the kibosh on man traveling to other worlds. That means they would lose control and they aren’t going to have any of that.
I think I remember him saying the Dragon can deliver rovers to Mars using the abort rockets for a soft landing.
Red Dragon (spacecraft)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dragon_(spacecraft)
(excerpt)
Red Dragon is a proposed modified SpaceX Dragon capsule for low-cost Mars lander missions using Falcon Heavy rockets. Proposed uses call for a sample return Mars rover to be delivered to the Martian surface while also testing techniques to enter the Martian atmosphere with equipment a human crew could eventually use.[1][2]
These guys are the right stuff!
SpaceX Makes History- Dec 21 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m813ddoMx2A
Launch of Falcon 9 Full Thrust on Return to Flight OG-2 Mission
22 minute video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRLPGptow80
ORBCOMM-2 Full Launch Webcast
45 minute video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5bTbVbe4e4
Glad to meet somebody as old and cynical and crotchety as myself (and I am still in my 40’s)...I am an engineer by trade, and by the nature of my many projects I am involved in, I keep up as best as I can with the latest science and technology on a daily basis....I assume from your level of snark you are about my age and some kind of REAL CLASSICAL STEM as well, perhaps even Apollo level?
I neve understood why they wasted time trying to land on a pitching barge deck.
Safety reasons.
Alas, like every bureaucracy, NASA became ... well ... you know. :(
So has the CIA. And now, the Marines.
You want to talk old and crotchety???
;)
Probably couldn’t get permission for anywhere remotely close to populations until they darn near nailed the landing way out in the ocean.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.