{"id":19009,"date":"2017-04-05T18:14:34","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T10:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacexs-gwynne-shotwell-says-rockets-should-fly-almost-as-often-as-airplanes\/"},"modified":"2017-04-05T18:14:34","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T10:14:34","slug":"spacexs-gwynne-shotwell-says-rockets-should-fly-almost-as-often-as-airplanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacexs-gwynne-shotwell-says-rockets-should-fly-almost-as-often-as-airplanes\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s Gwynne Shotwell says rockets should fly almost as often as airplanes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell watches a video of a Falcon 9 rocket landing during her talk to the 33rd Space Symposium. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. \u2013 SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell isn\u2019t satisfied with last week\u2019s history-making relaunch and landing of a previously flown Falcon 9 rocket.<\/p>\n

The way she sees it, rocket reusability doesn\u2019t really count unless the rocket can be reused \u201calmost as rapidly as you turn around an aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur challenge right now is to refly a rocket within 24 hours,\u201d she said here today at the 33rd Space Symposium. \u201cThat\u2019s when we\u2019ll really feel like we got the reusability just right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s launch featured the first-ever reuse of an orbital-class rocket booster, to launch the SES-10 telecommunications satellite into orbit. Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, has launched and landed the same rocket five times during suborbital test flights, but orbital reuse is considered far more challenging.<\/p>\n

It could also be far more lucrative. Shotwell and SpaceX\u2019s billionaire founder, Elon Musk, have said rocket reusability could translate into a savings of 10 to 30 percent on the cost of an orbital launch.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s assuming that SpaceX gets the reusability routine down pat. Last week\u2019s first-ever relaunch of a Falcon 9 first-stage booster served as a proof of principle.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=sPEPKGEQuiU<\/p>\n

Nearly a year elapsed between the first launch, which sent a Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station last April, and the second launch to put the SES-10 communications satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit. During the intervening months, the booster underwent detailed examination, extensive refurbishment and intensive testing.<\/p>\n

Shotwell didn\u2019t specify the exact cost of the refurbishment but said it was \u201csubstantially less than half\u201d of the original manufacturing cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did way more on this one than we\u2019re doing on future ones, of course,\u201d Shotwell said.<\/p>\n

She said future launches are also likely to include the recovery of the nose-cone fairing that protects satellites during the rocket\u2019s ascent. Last week, Musk estimated that recovery and reuse of the fairing could trim an extra $6 million off the current list price of $62 million for a Falcon 9 launch.<\/p>\n

Shotwell said at least one piece of the fairing was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean after last week\u2019s launch, although she didn\u2019t say whether it was slated for reuse. \u201cIt looked pretty good,\u201d she said, \u201cand you\u2019ll see more fairing recoveries as we go this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX sees rocket reusability as a requirement for making trips to Mars affordable for thousands of settlers within the next decade of so \u2013 which is Musk\u2019s overarching goal. Shotwell referred to that angle in her closing remarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope you guys buy your ticket to Mars,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell watches a video of a Falcon 9 rocket landing during her talk to the 33rd Space Symposium. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. \u2013 SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell isn\u2019t satisfied with last week\u2019s history-making relaunch and landing of a previously flown Falcon 9 rocket. The way she sees it, […]<\/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":[291,4434,316],"class_list":["post-19009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-falcon-launch","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19009"}],"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=19009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}