Posted on 04/20/2014 5:39:21 AM PDT by lbryce
Original Title:Watch: Amazing Drone Footage of a Space X Reusable Rocket’s First Test Flight
Make sure to watch this at full screen view.
Direct Link:YouTube:F9R First Flight Test|250m
This is awesome. The Falcon9 reusable rocket launches and then within minutes lands on its own four feet. Videoed by a drone high above the launch pad meeting up with it to close proximity as the rocket approaches the drone in mid-air.
Published on Apr 18, 2014
Video of Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) taking its first test flight at our rocket development facility. F9R lifts off from a launch mount to a height of approximately 250m, hovers and then returns for landing just next to the launch stand. Early flights of F9R will take off with legs fixed in the down position. However, we will soon be transitioning to liftoff with legs stowed against the side of the rocket and then extending them just before landing.
The F9R testing program is the next step towards reusability following completion of the Grasshopper program last year (Grasshopper can be seen in the background of this video). Future testing, including that in New Mexico, will be conducted using the first stage of a F9R as shown here, which is essentially a Falcon 9 v1.1 first stage with legs. F9R test flights in New Mexico will allow us to test at higher altitudes than we are permitted for at our test site in Texas, to do more with unpowered guidance and to prove out landing cases that are more-flight like.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenextweb.com ...
Wow! This is some technological marvel. Lifts off beautifully as a drone stationed high above the launch pad videos the falcon9 rocketing up to where they practically meet at 250 meters altitude. Then, just as gracefully it begins to land almost as if the video was running in reverse, the mid-air drone not missing a beat as it videos the falcon9 ever so gently landing on its four legs only minutes after taking flight.
It will make you forget all about the shuttle (maybe).
Obama watching the launch only wishes the drone was armed so he could send it careening back to Earth in one fell swoop having placed himself in his favorite position ready to pray and play (wink wink) facing Mecca pleading with Allah to destroy the infidel's "Great Jihadi Spear".
There should have been an American flag emblazoned on its fuselage.
Wow, this is spectacular!
Yeah, just like in those old sci-fi movies!
It looks like an animation doesn’t it?
how large would it have to be to carry the fuel necessary to escape the earths gravity and to land again. didn’t the Saturn 5 use all of it’s fuel?
Most of it during launch. It had to lift a lot of mass. Some fuel was left to achieve escape velocity for lunar missions. Then there was the fuel in the Service and Lunar Modules.
Yes, you know, I was going to make a note about that very thing but I realized it was too real looking to think it was animated.
Saturns and Shuttles used up all the liquid fuels. A few gallons (or hundreds gallons) left at MECO but not enough to do much with. I can’t remember how much residual was in each of the tanks for shuttle but it wasn’t a lot. If Jack Hydrazine checks this out he may have some numbers at hand. I know there was enough LH2 left for it to boil off and pop the relief valve on the LH2 tank.
The Saturn V forgetting about mass, weight, was 363 feet tall
(and I’m not sure if that includes the escape hatch)versus the falcon 9 standing at 180 feet, the Saturn V much bulkier as well.
It’s not just that ,, I don’t know what fuel this SpaceX rocket uses but it’s likely much more energy dense than the Saturn ,, Von Braun used cheap available fuels , alcohol and lox (V2),, kerosene and lox (Saturn)
“There should have been an American flag emblazoned on its fuselage. “
That wouldn’t be PC. It would also be rasis.
That is some amazing materials and aerodynamics work for the legs to take that kind of heat under the dynamic loading conditions of a landing
According to truthers, steel doesn’t melt.
You actually need very little fuel to land. Terminal velocity for something like this is about 400 miles an hour. So you need just enough fuel to decelerate from that speed to stop at touchdown. Plus at that point your vehicle is mostly empty tanks, so you have way more thrust than you need.
This is an amazing guidance and control capability.
I can’t imagine it’s use, as it requires so much propellant weight to first boost and then land the craft.
It would effectively cut the throw weight of the vehicle in half.
Technicolor camera reveals secret rocketship takeoff to the moon!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBEfpVkwWS4
Wow! Sounds amazingly life-like. Just like in real life. And this is genuine news-reel clips from the real thing. Shhh. Don't let Obama know. Shhhh.
This is not actually the first such landing test - it's only the first test with the flight-design landing legs. They did pathfinding work starting in September 2012 with a vehicle they dubbed "Grasshopper."
SpaceX Advanced Testing Playlist
The multi-angle 24-story hover test one is pretty cool.
The vehicle is far lighter when it's time to land it than it is when it's launched, since most of the fuel has been used, so it's not "half" - more like 30%. But if you can launch 140% of your original throw weight in two launches by simply refitting and refueling between them, when fuel is 0.3% of the cost of the rocket, instead of building a brand new rocket for the other 40%, then you're far, far ahead of the curve. We don't throw away 747's after every flight, and a rocket costs about as much.
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