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Posted on 09/18/2026 9:16:08 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The Falcon 9 Booster Landing Team at SpaceX has been awarded the 2026 Neil Armstrong Space Prize in the Innovation category for proving that rockets could be recovered, refurbished and reused — a feat much of the industry once considered impossible. This video traces how that breakthrough happened, from early NASA and Air Force reusability research to the moment engineers watched a booster descend out of the darkness and land perfectly upright.
Team members, including Jon Edwards, Yoshiaki Kuwata, Lars Blackmore, Shana Diez and Eduardo Valazquez, describe the persistence behind hundreds of engineers' work, and how those lessons carry forward into Starship's booster-catch landings. Purdue University's Dan Dumbacher and Kathleen Howell explain how reusable rockets changed the economics of access to space: Falcon 9 has now flown more than 600 missions on recovered boosters. What made this reusability breakthrough possible? The team points to a culture that rewarded trying and failing, precise engineering under enormous stakes and years of incremental proof, from the first landing to the 600th.
The prize honors innovation in the spirit of Neil Armstrong, a Purdue alum whose legacy still inspires students walking past his statue on campus every day.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
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Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
SpaceX's Falcon 9 Booster Landing Team honored with Purdue's 2026 Neil Armstrong Space Prize | 9:44
Purdue Engineering | 76.6K subscribers | 12,242 views | September 15, 2026
The Boilermakers: Gus Grissom | 42:59
Purdue University | 106K subscribers | 94,133 views | December 16, 2010
Inspired as a boy by the fantastic comic-strip fiction of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom forged a high-flying reality as a man, becoming one of America's first astronauts and the first man to go into space twice in a capsule vessel. Although Gus Grissom died at age 40 in 1967, he cut an integral path through several seminal moments of the 20th century, including 100 fighter-pilot missions in the Korean War and test-pilot duty in California.
The Indiana native and Purdue University graduate's life, legacy and motivations are recalled in the latest episode of "The Boilermakers," an ITaP-produced documentary series chronicling famous Purdue graduates that airs on the Big Ten Network.
It really is amazing what they can do nowadays with rockets. Never thought I would live to see this in my lifetime.
SIX ORBITS are planned, with the release of 26 operational Starlink satellites.
Total time in orbit is just under 10 hours.
That’s the plan….
7:15 Central time
The first real operational landing was in 2015, seemed like a dream before that — and the badmouthers were right at it, right here on FR — yet now it’s twice or thrice a week, and almost routine. F9 launches from the Cape are over with, but there have been at least a couple from Vandenberg, including the latest one, a classified payload if memory serves. As you said, it’s amazing to be living at this time.
“The Falcon has landed” | Recap of Falcon 9 launch and landing
3:37
SpaceX
6.98M subscribers
3,222,359 views
January 12, 2016
On December 21, 2015, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 delivered 11 satellites to low-Earth orbit and landed the first stage of the rocket back on land.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANv5UfZsvZQ
Blastoff! SpaceX launches classified US Space Force mission for 2nd time in under a week
9:01
VideoFromSpace
2.14M subscribers
78,038 views
September 17, 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBfllqLq_eQ
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the USSF-259 mission from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sept. 16, 2026 at 9:07 p.m. EDT (6:07 p.m. local California time; 0107 GMT on Sept. 17). Full Story: https://www.space.com/space-explorati...
It was SpaceX’s second classified mission for the U.S. Space Force in less than a week.
Better late than never.
Way to go SpaceX!!!!!
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