That deserves...
...one of these ->
for all concerned. Top marks.
Elon Musk's SpaceX has successfully landed a rocket on Earth, after first using it to launch satellites. The Falcon 9 craft left the US on Monday night, local time, packed with 11 satellites. The rocket launched at 20:28 from Cape Canaveral in Florida. At 20:32 the rocket's first stage engines shut off. Two minutes later, the …
Going under Bridges and over Bridges would explain many things...
Or is Elon finally admitting that SpaceX use hobbits to pilot the first stage...?
By which I presume you actually mean landed on "Of course I still love you" somewhere out at sea?
Which makes the landing all the more impressive.
Congratulations to Elon and his crew.
(The icon? Not This Time at least.)
The fire was pointing in the correct direction so it did go to space today.
@ Morrie Wyatt
"By which I presume you actually mean landed on "Of course I still love you" somewhere out at sea?"
Nope it took off and landed at the cape, as in Cape Canaveral, USA where they generally launch rockets from.
Truly remarkable especially as it also deployed its cargo of 11 satellites (i'm guessing tiny ones) too.
good job Elon's team!!
This post has been deleted by its author
It was on land. See the pic in the graunidad - towards bottom of the article:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/dec/22/welcome-back-baby-elon-musk-celebrates-spacex-rocket-launch-and-landing
From this pic it is also very clear that they could pull this one off because they had a HUGE quantity of excess fuel on this launch. You can see both curves quite clearly there (it is a 5 min "open shutter" pic). The rocket had to compensate for the delta v acquired curving on a ballistic towards the horizon to fly back. You cannot do that if you are short on fuel, so those barges will still see action from time to time for heavy payload and/or high orbit launches.
That makes it even more impressive that landing on a barge. The first stage had to change it's delta-v completely, so it's a prolonged burn with the rocket pointing the wrong way to whatever atmospheric drag it's experiencing. With a heavy load of fuel in the tanks - I think that this is a lot more difficult than the barge landing.
The boostback was definitely making things difficult, as they had to carry more fuel to revert delta-V . However, one thing that made barge landing so difficult, which you do not experience on terra firma, is the movement of the landing surface caused by waves. I think SpaceX is aiming to eventually start its rockets in Texas and land in Florida, so they have "best of two worlds" i.e. non-floating landing surface and no need to revert all of delta-V = less fuel for landing, which translates to more capacity.
You can launch from Texas as long as you don't mind taking out New Orleans if the launch goes wrong! There's a reason that they launch out across the ocean. If not the best place to launch from is from a rocket sled up the side of the rockies (you can make a single stage to orbit rocket easily doing that!)
"You can launch from Texas as long as you don't mind taking out New Orleans if the launch goes wrong!"
Hardly. You don't launch from Houston. You launch over the gulf from somewhere between Corpus and Brownsville -- that way the landing pad is straight East _over_the_ocean_. New Orleans wouldn't be in any danger.
they must take bit of a battering from launch forces and re-entry...
I would also assume that any residual fuel/oxidiser makes them quite hazardous to work on once landed too.
I havent seen much published on the practicalities.
All that said, great job and well done.
Looking at the state of it on the ground (video clip here), it looks like it really will need a good wash. Check out the difference in colour between the bottom, and the parts that were covered up by the landing legs.
And how exactly do you scrub a rocket anyway? Stick it on a low loader and go through a car wash? Or perhaps one of the ones they use for cleaning trains.
Sadly, I can't remember where I read this, but in an interview with Musk from earlier this year he said that the engines should be reusable between 20 and 40 times. Apparently the engine is the really valuable bit that they care about. Presumably replacing struts and fuel tanks that may be showing signs of wear is a lot cheaper than replacing the actual engines, which I suppose makes sense.
they must take bit of a battering from launch forces and re-entry...
The first stage is basically to get the thing off the ground to what are better thought of as very high aircraft heights and speeds, which is why there are projects to use rockets released by aircraft as the first stage. At this point the first stage is jettisoned as dead weight, and the second stage takes the rocket to low/mid space sort of heights, at which point it's jettisoned so save weight so the now lighter third stage can make it to orbit sort of heights.
At very high aircraft speeds and heights, you are looking at more aircraft levels of friction heat (ie < Mach 5) than "spacecraft free falling from orbit" levels (Mach ~25), which is presumably why they are only recovering the first stage.
Basically, this marks the start of the traditional "throw away the first stage" rocketry model having it's days numbered. With Space X actually able to reland their first stages and various approaches (SABRE etc) in development competition is about to bring down the cost to orbit quite a lot.
I suspect this first successfully landed 1st stage will be stripped down to the last nut and bolt for testing and analysis to see what stress and wear have occurred. The engines, being the most expensive bits may well get re-used eventually, possibly only as spare poarts, but I expect they will be subject to highly invasive testing, not least to satisfy the FAA that used engines are safe to re-use.
Alister: "Isn't it curious how we've seen spaceships land like this for decades in Sci-Fi films and TV shows, but to see it actually happen for real somehow is just so much more awesome."
Space vehicles landing vertically has been done before.
At least six times.
On the Moon.
Starting in the 1960s.