Tag: Reusability
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New challenges await SpaceX’s next rocket landing attempt
A view of SpaceX’s rocket landing ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: SpaceX via Elon Musk A rocket recovery team positioned off Florida’s East Coast is standing by for liftoff Sunday of a Falcon 9 launcher with a space weather satellite, but the demanding trajectory of the flight adds more unknowns to the company’s dicey…
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DSCOVR and Recover: SpaceX chase the cigar with next Falcon 9 mission
SpaceX will conduct a second attempt at landing a Falcon 9 v1.1 core stage on to its Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS) next month, during its primary mission of lofting the DSCOVR spacecraft to orbit. With stunning footage of the first attempt – during the CRS-5 mission – showing how close the core stage came to…
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SpaceX shares dramatic video of Falcon 9’s crash landing
SpaceX has shared a dramatic video of the Falcon 9 booster’s crash landing on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean after the rocket’s successful Jan. 10 liftoff with supplies for the International Space Station. SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk posted images from the video on Twitter early Friday, offering commentary on what happened as…
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Photos: SpaceX’s rocket landing platform back in port
SpaceX’s ocean-going rocket landing pad — dubbed the autonomous spaceport drone ship — is back in port after a Falcon 9 rocket booster crashed on the platform during an experimental flyback maneuver following Saturday’s successful liftoff with supplies for the International Space Station. Under tow from a tugboat, the 300-foot-long Marmac 300 cargo barge arrived…
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Despite botched landing, a lot went right with SpaceX’s booster flyback
Artist’s concept of a Falcon 9 booster stage descending to a controlled landing under rocket power. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster accomplished a delicate maneuver after a glowing predawn launch from Cape Canaveral on Saturday, turning around at hypersonic speeds and autonomously navigating its away to a modified barge the size of a football…
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Rocket landing experiment on tap after SpaceX cargo launch
An aerial view of SpaceX’s rocket landing barge, named the Marmac 300 and unofficially christened the “Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship.” Credit: SpaceX SpaceX hopes to take a giant leap forward in rocket technology a few minutes after Friday’s scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 booster taking up 2.5 tons of critical supplies and experiments to…
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Photos: SpaceX’s autonomous spaceport drone ship
An ocean-going cargo barge modified to serve as a landing pad for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster is set to depart the Port of Jacksonville for a journey into the Atlantic Ocean ahead of Friday’s launch of a space station cargo mission from Cape Canaveral. The barge will be stationed about 200 miles northeast of Cape…
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SpaceX hopes to recover rocket intact after next launch
SpaceX’s reusable rocket testbed — the Falcon 9R — touches down at the company’s Central Texas development facility after a brief vertical takeoff and landing test flight. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX will test out new stabilizing fins that could help land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating barge in the Atlantic Ocean…
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SpaceX’s Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship ready for action
The mystery behind the “floating platform” – set to welcome home a returning Falcon 9 v1.1 first stage – has been solved via a series of fascinating comments by SpaceX’s Elon Musk. Known as the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship, the ocean faring platform will be the new propulsive landing target for a Falcon 9, possibly as…
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Recovering SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Ocean Landing Video – How it was done
When SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket last April, most eyes were on the vehicle’s passenger, the CRS-3 Dragon spacecraft, en route to another mission to the ISS. However, for many SpaceX followers, a hugely interesting aspect of the mission was its secondary objective – to bring the first stage back from space to…