Tag: Reusability
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Musk wants to make Falcon rockets fully reusable
This illustration of a Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage re-entering the atmosphere is part of an animation released in 2011. SpaceX officials have not discussed technical details of how the company would recover upper stages under founder Elon Musk’s latest emphasis on the project. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX chief Elon Musk said last week he is…
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Blue Origin’s staying power bankrolled by Jeff Bezos’s multibillion-dollar investment
Jeff Bezos speaks at the 33rd Space Symposium on April 5. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos, now the second-richest person in the world, is funding his space company’s lofty ambitions $1 billion per year, driving Blue Origin closer to taking paying passengers to the edge of space and fielding a reusable satellite launcher…
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Photos: SpaceX booster lands for second time on drone ship
SpaceX’s reused Falcon 9 first stage booster returned to a landing on an ocean-going platform a few minutes after launching March 30 with the SES 10 communications satellite, then returned to Port Canaveral early Tuesday. Standing more than 150 feet (nearly 50 meters) tall, the booster sailed into port around sunrise Tuesday after riding SpaceX’s…
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SpaceX opens new era for spaceflight with successful core stage reuse
For SpaceX and its founder Elon Musk, it was a day 15 years in the making. The accomplishment Thursday evening of launching a flight-proven Falcon 9 core stage and landing it yet again on the ASDS barge, Of Course I Still Love You, is a stunning and beautiful feat of engineering that opens the door…
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Watch a replay of the Falcon 9 engine test
The Falcon 9 rocket’s main engines briefly ignited at launch pad 39A in a standard pre-launch test. This is the second time this booster has test fired its engines on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral. The first stage first fired at launch complex 40 prior to the CRS-8 space station resupply mission in April…
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Watch Falcon 9 go upright on the launch pad in time lapse video
A Falcon 9 rocket is moved into the position for a static test firing of its nine Merlin 1D engines on March 27, 2017. This is second time this vehicle has stood on a launch pad in readiness for launch. It will be the first time SpaceX has reused a Falcon 9 first stage. This…
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Hotfire test completed ahead of milestone Falcon 9 launch Thursday
SpaceX tweeted this image of the Falcon 9 rocket conducting its static fire test at pad 39A on Monday afternoon. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX has set the first launch of a “flight-proven” Falcon 9 rocket for Thursday evening after running the booster through a hold-down engine firing Monday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Nearly…
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SES 10 telecom satellite fueled and readied for launch on reused rocket
SES 10 at its manufacturing site at Airbus Defense and Space in Toulouse, France. Credit: Airbus Defense and Space Launch preparations for the SES 10 communications satellite, the first spacecraft to ride a reused Falcon 9 booster to space, are on track for a late March blastoff from Florida, officials said. The satellite, designed to…
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Drone’s view of Sunday’s SpaceX rocket landing
Check out a dazzling drone’s-eye view of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket booster returning to an on-target landing at Cape Canaveral a few minutes after launching Sunday with more than 2.5 tons of space station cargo. Email the author. Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.
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SpaceX rocket tagged for reuse test-fired in Texas
The test-firing of a previously-flown Falcon 9 first stage booster in late January paves the way for its second launch scheduled for no earlier than March. Credit: SpaceX The Falcon 9 first stage booster assigned to launch as soon as March on SpaceX’s first mission with a previously-flown rocket has been test-fired at the company’s…