{"id":14748,"date":"2017-03-31T23:05:11","date_gmt":"2017-03-31T15:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-flies-rocket-for-second-time-in-historic-test-of-cost-cutting-technology\/"},"modified":"2017-03-31T23:05:11","modified_gmt":"2017-03-31T15:05:11","slug":"spacex-flies-rocket-for-second-time-in-historic-test-of-cost-cutting-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-flies-rocket-for-second-time-in-historic-test-of-cost-cutting-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX flies rocket for second time in historic test of cost-cutting technology"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Credit: Walter Scriptunas II \/ Scriptunas Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sporting a fresh cleaning and several refurbishments took off Thursday from a seaside launch pad in Florida to send an SES communications satellite into space, then landed on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean to repeat a feat the same booster achieved nearly one year ago.<\/p>\n

The success buoys SpaceX\u2019s ambition to eventually land and launch rockets routinely, and at a fraction of the cost of current launch vehicles, according to Elon Musk, the tech entrepreneur who founded the space company in 2002.<\/p>\n

Musk said the achievement marks a turning point in a \u201chuge revolution in spaceflight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis represents the culmination of 15 years of work at SpaceX to be able to refly a rocket booster,\u201d Musk told reporters Thursday night.<\/p>\n

The first stage provides the bulk of the energy needed to put an object into orbit, and Musk said it is responsible for up to 70 percent of the total cost of a rocket flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most expensive part of the whole mission, from a launch standpoint, is the boost stage,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

Thundering away from launch pad 39A at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center, the two-stage rocket turned east over the Atlantic Ocean, climbing into a cloudless early evening sky after blasting off at 6:27 p.m. EDT (2227 GMT).<\/p>\n

The first stage of the Falcon 9, driven by nine kerosene-burning Merlin 1D main engines, was the star of the show, making a historic relaunch after SpaceX recovered the booster on a mission last April.<\/p>\n

The rocket stage performed well, officials said, dropping away from the upper part of the Falcon 9 launcher less than three minutes after liftoff.<\/p>\n

The Falcon 9\u2019s first stage stands about 156 feet (47 meters) tall and 12 feet (3.7 meters) in diameter. Its nine Merlin engines put out about 1.7 million pounds of thrust at full throttle.<\/p>\n

The first stage that flew Thursday logged nearly nine minutes of flight time during a space station resupply launch on April 8, 2016, soaring above the 62-mile-high (100-kilometer) internationally-recognized boundary of space before descending to a vertical landing on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

The previously-flown booster, designated No. 21 in SpaceX\u2019s fleet of Falcon rocket cores, pulled off an almost identical feat Thursday, launching and landing as the Falcon 9\u2019s expendable upper stage maneuvered in space to deploy the SES 10 communications satellite.<\/p>\n

Touchdown on SpaceX\u2019s sea-based landing platform occurred around 340 miles (550 kilometers) east of Cape Canaveral, just as the second stage engine placed SES 10 into a low-altitude parking orbit.<\/p>\n

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The Falcon 9 first stage lands on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second stage reignited for nearly a minute at 2253 GMT (6:53 p.m. EDT) to push the 11,644-pound (5,282-kilogram) SES 10 spacecraft, built by Airbus Defense and Space, into the correct egg-shaped geostationary transfer orbit.<\/p>\n

The rocket\u2019s navigation computer targeted an orbit with a high point of 22,002 miles (35,410 kilometers), a low point of 135 miles (218 kilometers) and an inclination of 26.2 degrees.<\/p>\n

Spacecraft separation was confirmed at T+plus 32 minutes, and a rocket-mounted camera streamed down a live view of the SES 10 satellite receding into space.<\/p>\n

SES officials confirmed the satellite was in a good orbit and communicating with ground controllers as anticipated. SES 10\u2019s own engine will raise its orbit to geostationary altitude of nearly 22,300 miles (about 35,800 kilometers) over the equator in April. At that altitude, SES 10 will move around Earth at the same speed the planet rotates, allowing it to remain in a fixed geographic location.<\/p>\n

Once it completes in-orbit testing, SES 10 should be operational by mid-May in a slot at 67 degrees west longitude, giving the spacecraft\u2019s antennas and Ku-band transponders visibility from Mexico and the Caribbean to the southern tip of Argentina.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an extremely important satellite for SES and the development of our business in Latin America,\u201d said Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer of Luxembourg-based SES. \u201cPredominately, this is going to be for video, and predominately, this is going to be for the development of the Ultra HD capability of SES into these various different areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
A forward-facing rocket-mounted camera captured this view of the SES 10 satellite deploying from the Falcon 9 upper stage over Africa about 32 minutes after liftoff. Credit: SpaceX<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Designed from the start to be partially reusable, SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rockets have flown 32 times with the conclusion of Thursday\u2019s mission. On those 32 flights, SpaceX has tried to recover the first stage \u2014 either at sea or back at Cape Canaveral \u2014 on 14 occasions with nine intact landings.<\/p>\n

Thursday was the first time SpaceX attempted to relaunch one of the previously-flown boosters in the company\u2019s inventory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really a great day, not just for SpaceX, but for the space industry as a whole, proving something can be done that many people said was impossible,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

Halliwell represents one of SpaceX\u2019s major commercial customers. He is also one of SpaceX\u2019s biggest cheerleaders in the satellite industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been naysayers,\u201d Halliwell said before Thursday\u2019s launch. \u201cI can tell you there was a chief engineer of another launch provider \u2014 I will not say the name \u2014 who told me, categorically to my face, you will never land a first stage booster. It is impossible, and if you do it, it will be completely wrecked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to decouple the emotion from the engineering,\u201d Halliwell said after Thursday\u2019s launch. \u201cThe engineering team that Elon has working for him is really second to none. He asks very simple profound questions, and he gets very good answers. The proof is in the pudding.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX engineers refurbished the first stage last year, taking several months to fully inspect components, replace some hardware, and put the booster through a new round of hotfire testing at the company\u2019s development site in Central Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this being the first reflight, we were incredibly paranoid about everything,\u201d Musk said. \u201cThe core airframe remained the same, the engines remained the same, but any sort of auxiliary components that we thought might be slightly questionable, we changed out,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

SES announced in August an agreement to place the SES 10 satellite on the first reused Falcon 9 booster, days before a Falcon 9 rocket exploded on the Complex 40 launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, grounding SpaceX missions more than four months and expediting the company\u2019s plans to begin launching off nearby pad 39A on NASA property.<\/p>\n

But SES, operator of around 57 satellites currently in orbit with the launch of SES 10, stuck by its commitment to purchase a flight of a reused rocket.<\/p>\n

SpaceX intends to cut down on the refurbishment and hardware swapouts on future reused rockets. Design upgrades are coming soon to address several weak points, such as the booster\u2019s steering grid fins, which are prone to heating and can catch fire in flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next thing is to try and figure out how do we achieve very rapid reuse with minimal refurbishment, and without any sort of hardware changes on the vehicle,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur aspiration will be zero hardware changes (with) a reflight in 24 hours, and the only thing that changes is we reload propellant,\u201d Musk said. \u201cWe might get there toward the end of this year, but if not this year, I\u2019m confident we\u2019ll get there next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Falcon 9 rocket streaks downrange Thursday. Credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX hoped to re-fly this booster last year, but the extensive inspections and refurbishment, coupled with the ground of the the Falcon 9 fleet late last year, delayed the SES 10 launch to March.<\/p>\n

Officials have not disclosed how much of a discount SES received to be the first customer to fly on one of SpaceX\u2019s reused boosters.<\/p>\n

Musk aims for a 100-fold reduction in launch costs in the long run, but the pricing effects will be more modest in the beginning. Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX\u2019s president and chief operating officer, said last year the company will initially offer a 10 percent discount to clients willing to put their payloads on previously-flown rockets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be a meaningful discount,\u201d Musk said, without citing a number. \u201cWe\u2019ll figure out some way to pay off the development costs of reusability, so the price discount won\u2019t be as much as the cost savings because we need to repay the massive development cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it will certainly be less than the price of our current rockets, and will be far lower than any other rocket in the world,\u201d Musk added.<\/p>\n

SpaceX says a regular commercial launch of a Falcon 9 rocket now costs about $62 million, already making it the least expensive option in its lift category.<\/p>\n

Musk said SpaceX made the Falcon 9 rocket\u2019s first stage reusable with entirely private funding, investing at least $1 billion in the effort through development of sophisticated guidance algorithms, heat shields, propulsive steering capabilities, and the outfitting of mobile ocean-going platforms as landing targets.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s launch also got SpaceX closer to recovering and reusing the Falcon 9\u2019s payload fairing, the clamshell-like nose shroud that covers satellites during the first few minutes of flight.<\/p>\n

Musk said one-half of the fairing launched with SES 10 landed intact in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s definitely the cherry on the cake,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fairing has its own thruster control system and a steerable parachute,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like its own little spacecraft, so the thrusters maintain its orientation as it comes in \u2014 as it re-enters \u2014 and then we throw out a parachute, and the parachute steers it to a particular location.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Musk, the fairing costs about $6 million to produce.<\/p>\n

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The SES 10 satellite, encapsulated inside the Falcon 9 payload fairing, is seen inside SpaceX\u2019s hangar awaiting attachment to the rocket. Credit: SES<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAt one point, we were debating whether we should try to recover it,\u201d Musk said. \u201cImagine you had $6 million in cash in a pallet flying through the air, and it\u2019s going to smash into the ocean. Would you try to recover it? Yes, you would.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the fairing recovery plan is \u201clooking quite promising\u201d after several years of experimenting with the technique.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ll have is kind of like a bouncy castle for it to land on, and we aim to reuse the fairing as well,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing left is the upper stage, which we originally didn\u2019t intend for the Falcon 9 to have a reusable upper stage, but it might be fun to try a \u2018Hail Mary.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The first stage that landed offshore Thursday will return to Port Canaveral in a few days. Musk said the booster will be retired from service and put on display somewhere at Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n

\u201cAssuming the fairing reuse works out, and as we optimize the cost of reusing the booster, you\u2019re really looking at maybe three-quarters of the rocket cost dropping by an order of magnitude, and maybe more,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s space shuttle orbiters and segments of their solid rocket boosters flew dozens of times, but they took months to reconfigure between missions at significant cost, requiring thousands of engineers and technicians in hands-on jobs and in support roles.<\/p>\n

SpaceX is emphasizing rapid reuse, and other launch firms are trying to catch up.<\/p>\n

Blue Origin, the space company founded by Amazon.com\u2019s Jeff Bezos, is developing the powerful New Glenn rocket for a maiden flight from Cape Canaveral in 2020. The methane-fueled New Glenn, named for Mercury astronaut John Glenn, will land on an offshore platform for reuse in a manner similar to the concept pioneered by SpaceX.<\/p>\n

\"\"
SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk (left) and SES chief technology officer Martin Halliwell (right) address reporters after Thursday\u2019s launch. Credit: Walter Scriptunas II \/ Scriptunas Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s that saying about the best form of flattery?\u201d Musk said. \u201cActually, I think it\u2019s good if a company shows that a path is working, then other companies should copy that. It would be silly not to \u2026 Rapid and complete reusability of rockets is really the key to opening up space and becoming a space-faring civilization, and a multi-planet species, and having a future that\u2019s incredibly exciting that we can all look forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n

More entrenched rocket companies are taking a more conservative approach to reuse.<\/p>\n

United Launch Alliance, a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, is working on the next-generation Vulcan rocket, which is likely to be powered by Blue Origin-built BE-4 engines. The initial Vulcan flights will be expendable, but ULA is studying a way to retrieve the engines with a heat shield and a parachute.<\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s new Ariane 6 rocket will be single-use when it debuts in 2020, but the European Space Agency, the French space agency CNES and Airbus Safran Launchers have partnered to work on the reusable Prometheus engine, which could be installed on a future European booster outfitted to fly multiple times.<\/p>\n

ULA and European officials, which oversee rocket programs with near-perfect success records over the last decade, question the economic payoff of reusing rockets, claiming launchers must fly much more often than today to close the business case.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we want to do is encourage the launcher industry to follow this way forward,\u201d Halliwell said before the launch. \u201cMaybe Bezos will be able to do this. Maybe, one day, Ariane will be able to to this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to be competitive in launch costs, I think it\u2019s going to be necessary for other launch companies to do the same thing,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce it\u2019s clear that something can be done, then I think that will encourage others in that direction, and I hope it does,\u201d Musk said. \u201cI think it shouldn\u2019t be just SpaceX. There should be many other launch companies that succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX plans to refly up to six used first stage boosters this year. Two of them will launch as side boosters on the maiden flight of SpaceX\u2019s new Falcon Heavy, now set to lift off in \u201clate summer,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

The triple-body Falcon Heavy is made of three Falcon 9 first stages bolted together. The core will be a new vehicle on the inaugural flight, which will be a purely demonstration of the heavy-lifter. Musk said the test flight will be a \u201chigh-risk\u201d mission.<\/p>\n

Musk said three or four other other customers have agreements to fly on partially reused Falcon 9 rockets that were contingent upon the outcome of Thursday\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a bunch of companies are waiting to see (what happens),\u201d an insurance underwriter who works in the satellite and launch markets said before the SES 10 mission. \u201cA lot of it does have to do with the insurance market. If this goes successfully, then a lot of customers are going to assume that the insurance community is OK with reused stages, which will be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line is reused rockets are here to stay,\u201d the underwriter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy belief is within 24 months, SpaceX \u2026 will offer a service to orbit and it\u2019ll be irrelevant,\u201d Halliwell said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be irrelevant whether it\u2019s new or pre-flown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Credit: Walter Scriptunas II \/ Scriptunas Images A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sporting a fresh cleaning and several refurbishments took off Thursday from a seaside launch pad in Florida to send an SES communications satellite into space, then landed on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean to repeat a feat the same booster achieved nearly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1657,3353,1819,291,1573,2164,479,428],"class_list":["post-14748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-airbus-defense-and-space","tag-asds","tag-brazil","tag-commercial-space","tag-drone-ship","tag-eurostar-e3000","tag-falcon-9","tag-kennedy-space-center"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14748"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}