{"id":19395,"date":"2016-05-05T19:53:46","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T11:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/woohoo-spacex-falcon-9-booster-makes-nighttime-landing-at-sea-after-launching-jcsat-14-satellite\/"},"modified":"2016-05-05T19:53:46","modified_gmt":"2016-05-05T11:53:46","slug":"woohoo-spacex-falcon-9-booster-makes-nighttime-landing-at-sea-after-launching-jcsat-14-satellite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/woohoo-spacex-falcon-9-booster-makes-nighttime-landing-at-sea-after-launching-jcsat-14-satellite\/","title":{"rendered":"Woohoo! SpaceX Falcon 9 booster makes nighttime landing at sea after launching JCSAT-14 satellite"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_248225\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-248225\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-248225\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160506-spacex-630x473.jpg\" alt=\"SpaceX Falcon on ship\" width=\"630\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160506-spacex-630x473.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160506-spacex-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160506-spacex.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-248225\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hours after its nighttime landing, a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage stands tall on an autonomous spaceport drone ship nicknamed \u201cOf Course I Still Love You.\u201d (Credit: SpaceX)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SpaceX increased the degree of difficulty for tonight\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket landing attempt at sea after launching a Japanese satellite into a super-high orbit \u2013&nbsp;but the feat came off successfully nevertheless.<\/p>\n<p>The California-based company\u2019s billionaire founder, Elon Musk, downplayed the odds of success before the launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 10:21 p.m. PT (1:21 a.m. ET Friday). \u201cRocket re-entry is a lot faster and hotter than last time, so odds of making it are maybe even, but we should learn a lot either way,\u201d he tweeted.<\/p>\n<p>Moments after the Falcon 9\u2019s first stage landed on a drone ship, hundreds of miles out in the Atlantic Ocean, Musk tweeted just one word:<\/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=eyJ0ZndfdGltZWxpbmVfbGlzdCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOltdLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2ZvbGxvd2VyX2NvdW50X3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9iYWNrZW5kIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19yZWZzcmNfc2Vzc2lvbiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZm9zbnJfc29mdF9pbnRlcnZlbnRpb25zX2VuYWJsZWQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib24iLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X21peGVkX21lZGlhXzE1ODk3Ijp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRyZWF0bWVudCIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3Nob3dfYmlyZHdhdGNoX3Bpdm90c19lbmFibGVkIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19kdXBsaWNhdGVfc2NyaWJlc190b19zZXR0aW5ncyI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdXNlX3Byb2ZpbGVfaW1hZ2Vfc2hhcGVfZW5hYmxlZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdmlkZW9faGxzX2R5bmFtaWNfbWFuaWZlc3RzXzE1MDgyIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRydWVfYml0cmF0ZSIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfbGVnYWN5X3RpbWVsaW5lX3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9mcm9udGVuZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9fQ%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=728457279943495681&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2016%2Fspacex-falcon-9-booster-makes-nighttime-landing-sea-launching-jcsat-14-satellite%2F&amp;sessionId=6ba1c08c0832196c1acdce2630927a252af73ecf&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"728457279943495681\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782804651395534527=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Woohoo!! https:\/\/t.co\/0P8n8VmFbr<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 6, 2016<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The mission followed up on last month\u2019s first successful at-sea landing, after the launch of a Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station. SpaceX also brought a booster in for a touchdown on a landing pad near the Florida launch site in December, but the company wants to perfect the at-sea procedure because the on-land option won\u2019t be available for at least half of the Falcon 9\u2019s launches.<\/p>\n<p>Tonight\u2019s launch was one of those occasions: Because the JCSAT-14 telecommunications satellite had to go into geosynchronous transfer orbit, more than 22,000 miles up, there was very little propellant to spare.<\/p>\n<p>After the rocket\u2019s second stage separated, the first stage had relight its engines, slow itself down from a supersonic descent and maneuver itself for a controlled landing on the deck of the drone ship. The deck is only about as big as a football field, which looks mighty small from more than 60 miles up.<\/p>\n<p>Even though it was late, a crowd of SpaceX employees showed up at the company\u2019s headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., to watch tonight\u2019s launch and its aftermath. When a webcam showed the first stage upright on the drone ship, dubbed \u201cOf Course I Still Love You,\u201d the crowd chanted \u201cUSA! USA! USA!\u201d&nbsp;\u2013 just as they did a month earlier.<\/p>\n<p>Cheers erupted again when word came that the satellite was in&nbsp;its proper orbit.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_248164\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-248164\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-248164\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160505-spacex3-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"SpaceX Falcon 9 launch\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160505-spacex3-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/160505-spacex3.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-248164\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying the JCSAT-14 satellite into space. (Credit: SpaceX)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The launching part of tonight\u2019s flight seemed&nbsp;almost boringly routine&nbsp;\u2013 but it was far more essential to mission success than the booster landing. JCSAT-14 is built to provide Ultra HD 4K TV services to subscribers for Japan-based SKY Perfect JSAT, the leading satellite communication operator in the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n<p>The satellite, which weighs 5 tons including fuel, will also provide data services for airliners and mobile devices, and serve as a communications backup for emergency response and disaster relief.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX wants to make rocket recovery routine to drive down the cost of access to orbit, with the eventual goal of making spaceflight so cheap that thousands of colonists can fly to Mars. The company\u2019s processing hangar near Launch Pad 39A at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center already houses two recovered Falcon boosters. Now a third is on its way back for testing, and possibly for reflight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMay need to increase size of rocket storage hangar,\u201d Musk tweeted.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=k7UbIoyQo50<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hours after its nighttime landing, a SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage stands tall on an autonomous spaceport drone ship nicknamed \u201cOf Course I Still Love You.\u201d (Credit: SpaceX) SpaceX increased the degree of difficulty for tonight\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket landing attempt at sea after launching a Japanese satellite into a super-high orbit \u2013&nbsp;but the feat [&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":[291,1045,4434,20,316],"class_list":["post-19395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-elon-musk","tag-falcon-launch","tag-satellite","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19395"}],"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=19395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}