Posted on 04/18/2014 1:56:24 PM PDT by blam
Watch Elon Musk's Reusable Rocket Launch And Land Itself In This Amazing Video Shot By A Drone
Jillian D'Onfro
April 18, 2014, 2:27 PM
Elon Musk's private space company, SpaceX, has been experimenting with reusable rockets since last year.
Because the cost of fuel is much less compared to the cost of building a rocket from scratch every time, Musk and his team are trying to master reusable rockets so they can get closer to their goal of making commercial space travel more affordable.
The company just posted an amazing video on YouTube of its Falcon 9 Reusable rocket lifting off, rising 250 meters, hovering, and landing on the ground right next to the launch pad.
Even cooler, the video was shot by a drone.
Later today, SpaceX will make its second attempt to send its Dragon spacecraft, carrying 4,000 pounds of supplies, on a Falcon 9 rocket (like the one in the video) to the International Space Station on its third resupply mission.
That launch is scheduled for 3:25 p.m. Eastern and will be broadcast live from the SpaceX website starting at 2:45 p.m.
In the meantime, check out this amazing video:
(click to the site to see a short video)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
this the grasshopper in the video, not the real first stage, seen zero video as of yet, waiting for the presser to start
Is it just me, or is the video link missing at the Business Insider website?
no it’s no you, i could not see it either
Re-clicked on the link and the video is there now.
I couldn’t find the video.
Can these carry some D.C. politicians and deposit them on the nearest earth like world? Preferably 60+ light years away.
That’s more or less how rocket ships were supposed to work in 1950s sci-fi movies.
Yes wondering how today’s 1st stage water landing went.
Thanks! I hit refresh and the video was properly embedded in the story.
This is truly amazing in that the rocket returns to land in its original vertical launch position. Only fly-by-wire controls could overcome the inherent instability of that attitude. Wow!
Loaded correctly when I refreshed as well...but whenever it’s a YouTube imbed I just click and go straight to You Tube—don’t have to mess with all the other crazy crap trying to load on the page.
That... Was... WICKED!!
Elon Musk is brilliant. And a LEGAL immigrant. I’m a fan; not too many visionaries in the technical arts these days. I wonder what he comes up with next.
Couldn’t have said it better. Really.
For quite a while into it, even after the launch, I was thinking “this is a very good CGI simulation.”
Then I noticed the vapor (or smoke) burning off the coating on the landing support struts as they absorbed infrared radiation from the exhaust plume. In the dead-calm air at 250 meters, the vapor cloud hardly moved. At that point, I was thinking “no computer graphics guy would have thought to include that effect, no matter how good his imagination.”
That was really amazing to watch. I was a big fan of the shuttle, but this takes me back to really early childhood scifi movies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv9n9Casp1o
The difference being that the Delta Clipper was supposed to be a SSTO (Single Stage To Orbit) rocket, where the Space-X is only recovering the boosters used to put the capsule into orbit.
I kind of thought along the same lines, too. But there are a few other vids of this at YouTube. I watched it with my 13-year-old grandson and he was amazed.
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