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.
I’m just glad as hell they finally did it. I was screaming at the screen in the final seconds , “STAY UP! STAY UP!”. My two boys were also yelling behind me. When the engines shut down and it was standing there safe, I was screaming and yelling for all I was worth, as were my boys.
We broke out a bottle of sparkling cider for dinner and toasted SpaceX’s success.
Yes, they had to prove to the Feds that they could safely bring the booster back under control to a pinpoint landing. The last thing they want is to have it go out of control and land in a populated area.
Where are all usual suspects denigrating Musk because he just makes an overrated electric car and owes his profits (meager as they are) to government subsidies?
Well done Mr. Musk. A great accomplishment.
Oh I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed
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.)SpaceX successfully landed this way in a suborbital test BEFORE Blue Origin. Blue Origin may have the lead in the development of a methane-burning engine -- for now -- and gets paid more per pound to orbit (that's gubmint for ya). This landing was superb, nailed it, and after the launch failure earlier in the year, SpaceX needed this, bigtime. Congratulations to SpaceX, and I look forward to the Falcon Heavy test in 2016 -- they're the ticket to Mars colonization. Getting this launch down is a necessity, obviously there are no cranes or other infrastructure on Mars, and the methane-burning engine will be needed because methane fuel is available on Mars (kerosene not so much). Thanks Jack!
It’s truncated, but at the end of that last vid linked, the crowd starts chanting “U - S - A”.
Oh, and the launch itself? SpaceX used one Falcon 9 to orbit eleven satellites.
:’)
Landing, as viewed from a chopper (a little too dark right at the end, but nice shot!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCBE8ocOkAQ
It was very stable on approach this time. Looked very smooth. It was a bit windy last night, too.
Where are all usual suspects denigrating Musk because he just makes an overrated electric car and owes his profits (meager as they are) to government subsidies?
Well done Mr. Musk. A great accomplishment.
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Hearing all the SpaceX employees chanting USA was great, too.
Amen to that. I had the stamp books that NASA put out, and they would send stamps from each of the different launches and test rockets. Coooool times.
It also looks like they hit the center of the landing zone, too.
SpaceX put the last six months to good use.
Can The U.S. Reclaim Its Market Share In Space? Elon Musk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw1p9nO-8Z4
Why Make Rockets Reusable?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B5av0BOajU
Why Is Making A Reusable Rocket So Difficult? Elon Musk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIVCCaYWGpk
Why Invest In Making Life Multi-Planetary? Elon Musk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SECSxUbXTA
What Is The Business Model For Mars? Elon Musk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fS1FxBq64A
Elon Musk: I’ll Put a Man on Mars in 10 Years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiPJsI8pl8Q
I neve understood why they wasted time trying to land on a pitching barge deck.
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It gave them the data to convince the government to allow them to attempt to land back at Cape Canaveral.
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