{"id":19016,"date":"2017-03-30T20:38:11","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T12:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/launch-a-rocket-every-day-spacexs-elon-musk-kicks-it-up-a-notch-for-reusability\/"},"modified":"2017-03-30T20:38:11","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T12:38:11","slug":"launch-a-rocket-every-day-spacexs-elon-musk-kicks-it-up-a-notch-for-reusability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/launch-a-rocket-every-day-spacexs-elon-musk-kicks-it-up-a-notch-for-reusability\/","title":{"rendered":"Launch a rocket every day? SpaceX\u2019s Elon Musk kicks it up a notch for reusability"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_321359\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-321359\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-321359\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/170330-musk-1-630x347.jpg\" alt=\"Elon Musk\" width=\"630\" height=\"347\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/170330-musk-1-630x347.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/170330-musk-1-768x423.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/170330-musk-1.jpg 953w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-321359\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">SpaceX founder Elon Musk talks about the significance of the first relaunch of a Falcon 9 rocket booster. (SpaceX via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SpaceX took nearly a year to relaunch its first \u201cflight-proven\u201d Falcon 9 booster, but within a year or two, company founder Elon Musk expects to be able to launch the same rocket day after day.<\/p>\n<p>He also foresees a time when all the major components of a Falcon 9 rocket can be flown again&nbsp;\u2014 not just the first-stage booster, but also the nose cone and perhaps even the rocket\u2019s upper stage.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"callout clearfix\"><strong>Previously:<\/strong> Elon Musk says booster has \u2018historic value\u2019 after flying a second time<\/h4>\n<p>That could drive the cost of a launch to less than&nbsp;1 percent&nbsp;of what it is today&nbsp;\u2014 for example, $600,000 rather than the current $62 million list price for a Falcon 9 rocket launch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe significance of today is proving that it\u2019s possible to do that,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n<p>Musk discussed the implications of the first-ever reuse of an orbital-class rocket today during a news briefing at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, just a couple of hours after SpaceX successfully put the SES-10 communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit.<\/p>\n<p>The Falcon 9\u2019s first-stage booster not only worked perfectly, but also flew itself back to an autonomous drone ship for its second at-sea landing and recovery.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"SpaceX SES-10 Relaunch of Falcon 9 core #1021 Post-Mission Press Briefing\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jC3LQFpuzqs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Several other previously flown \u2026 er, \u201cflight-proven\u201d \u2026 boosters are waiting in the wings, and Musk said six reflights could take place this year. Twice as many booster reflights could occur during 2018, he added.<\/p>\n<p>More importantly, Musk expects the turnaround time to shrink significantly. In preparation for today\u2019s reflight, the SpaceX team was \u201cincredibly paranoid\u201d about replacing components, Musk said. His goal is to refine the procedures, and add real-time sensors to the Falcon 9 hardware, to make it possible to refly the first-stage booster without any hardware refurbishment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe might get there toward the end of this year, but I think if not this year, I\u2019m confident we\u2019ll get there next year,\u201d Musk said. That could allow for a 24-hour turnaround time, he said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=847594208219336705&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2017%2Fspacex-falcon-elon-musk-reusability%2F&amp;sessionId=e8d4ddabd949c2d49c13491171e7d38bc82cbfb4&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782802945004740737=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Incredibly proud of the SpaceX team for achieving this milestone in space! Next goal is reflight within 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 30, 2017<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>During the briefing, Musk noted that the nose cone that covered the SES-10 satellite, also known as the payload fairing, had been equipped with a parachute-and-thruster system. The system was activated to practice bringing the&nbsp;costly component down for a soft splashdown.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat actually successfully landed as well,\u201d Musk told reporters. \u201cThat was the cherry on the cake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Musk said that if the fairing can be recovered for reuse&nbsp;\u2014 for example, by landing it onto a floating \u201cbouncy castle\u201d at sea&nbsp;\u2014 that could save an additional $6 million per launch.<\/p>\n<p>That would leave the Falcon 9\u2019s upper stage as the only part of the rocket that was not reusable,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t originally intend for the Falcon 9 to have a reusable upper stage,\u201d Musk said, \u201cbut it might be fun to try, like, a Hail Mary. What\u2019s the worst that could happen? It blows up, but it blows up anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many of the boosters may be repurposed for use as side cores on the much more powerful Falcon Heavy rocket, which Musk now expects to debut late this summer. He expects to get to the point that each Falcon 9 booster could be reused 10 times with no refurbishment, or 100 times with moderate refurbishment.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Falcon Heavy  | Flight Animation\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4Ca6x4QbpoM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Musk said SpaceX might try bringing the Falcon Heavy\u2019s upper stage back during a demonstration flight. \u201cOdds of success low, but maybe worth a shot,\u201d he said in a tweet.<\/p>\n<p>As ambitious as all this sounds, even a fully reusable Falcon Heavy represents merely another step toward Musk\u2019s grand ambition: creating an Interplanetary Transport System that\u2019s capable of sending settlers to Mars and creating a second home for humanity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a really a critical part of the Mars plan, if you consider the goal on Mars not to be a single mission, but one where we establish a self-sustaining city on Mars,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n<p>In order to make Mars settlement affordable, \u201cthere needs to be at least a hundredfold, if not perhaps a thousandfold reduction in the cost per ton to Mars, actually maybe ten-thousandfold, and reusability is absolutely essential to that goal,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope people start to think of this as a real goal to which we should aspire, to establish a civilization on Mars,\u201d Musk said. \u201cThis is not just about humanity. It\u2019s about all the life that we care about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SpaceX founder Elon Musk talks about the significance of the first relaunch of a Falcon 9 rocket booster. (SpaceX via YouTube) SpaceX took nearly a year to relaunch its first \u201cflight-proven\u201d Falcon 9 booster, but within a year or two, company founder Elon Musk expects to be able to launch the same rocket day after [&hellip;]<\/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":[291,1045,4434,3575,367,316],"class_list":["post-19016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-elon-musk","tag-falcon-launch","tag-interplanetary-transport-system","tag-mars","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19016"}],"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=19016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}