![\"2016-04-12-031406\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/2016-04-12-031406-350x201.jpg\")
The successful primary mission was complimented by another achievement for SpaceX\u2019s reusability test objectives, specifically the first-ever safe landing of the first stage on the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS).<\/p>\nThe Falcon 9 first stage that successfully landed on the deck of the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS) barge on Friday sailed into Port Canaveral early on Tuesday. Riding atop \u201cOf Course I Still Love You\u201d the stage is hoping to conduct around ten static test fires ahead of SpaceX\u2019s next reusability milestone of launching the flown stage once again on a mission in the coming months.<\/p>\n
CRS-8 F9 S1:<\/p>\n
Falcon 9 launched without issue, helping to push the CRS-8 Dragon uphill on a chase with the International Space Station (ISS).<\/p>\n
Dragon concluded her two day journey to the orbital outpost via a successful berthing on Sunday, marking the return of SpaceX Commercial Resupply Service (CRS) operations following last year\u2019s loss of the CRS-7 mission.<\/p>\n
The successful primary mission was complimented by another achievement for SpaceX\u2019s reusability test objectives, specifically the first-ever safe landing of the first stage on the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS).<\/p>\n
SpaceX had yet to complete a controlled landing on the barge from four previous attempts. The only attempted land-landing to date \u2013 during December\u2019s Orbcomm launch \u2013 was achieved successfully at the first attempt.<\/p>\n
With Falcon 9 already proving she could successfully return the first stage to the LZ-1 landing pad at Cape Canaveral, a successful \u2013 more challenging \u2013 landing on the drone ship would prove to be a huge boost.<\/p>\n
![\"2016-04-12-031534\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/2016-04-12-031534-350x224.jpg\")
SpaceX CEO and lead designer Elon Musk has noted the use of the ASDS fleet for first stage landings will be required on around half of future SpaceX missions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rocket, at stage separation, is zooming out to sea at an incredible velocity. It doesn\u2019t have enough propellent to zero out that velocity, boostback and land (on certain missions),\u201d noted Mr. Musk.<\/p>\n
SpaceX launch tickets (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n \u201cSo in order to achieve effective reusability for missions that go to high orbit, you really need ocean landing.\u201d<\/p>\n Notably, Dragon missions would allow for boosters to return to land, but for this mission the aim was to prove ASDS landings could be achieved.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to do a ship landing where there\u2019s a lot of margin,\u201d Mr. Musk added. \u201c(CRS-8) would have been a low margin return to land or a high margin ship landing.<\/p>\n \u201cSo this helped us show the ship landing can work.\u201d<\/p>\n The trip back to the coast was finally achieved on Tuesday morning, as the ASDS and support ships entered Port Canaveral, this time \u2013 for the first time \u2013 with a flown Falcon 9 first stage on the deck of the \u201cOf Course I Still Love You\u201d.<\/p>\n During the previous mission, the ASDS only got to show off the battlescars of the attempted landing of the SES-9 first stage, most notably a large hole, which was repaired in time for the CRS-8 objectives.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a loading head fixture that we can put on the top of the rocket where the stage separation system attaches. Then we pick it up with the crane and then put it on a stand which attaches to the launch hold downs,\u201d added Mr. Musk.<\/p>\n \u201cWe then fold the landing legs up, rotate the stage horizontal for transport and then take it to (probably) 39A and conduct test firings.<\/p>\n \u201cIf that all goes well I think we\u2019ll be comfortable with an orbital flight.\u201d<\/p>\n The leg process actually involved the hardware being removed from the stage, as opposed to folded up, as outlined by Mr. Musk.<\/p>\n \u201cThe plan is to bring this booster back and do a series of test fires. We\u2019re hoping to do that at the Cape, rather than transport it to Texas (SpaceX test center near McGregor).<\/p>\n \u201cThe thought it to fire it 10 times in a row and if that looks good it will be qualified for reuse.\u201d<\/p>\n While the returned OG-2 first stage was successfully static-fired for a few seconds at SLC-40 \u2013 and now destined to be displayed in pride of place at SpaceX\u2019s Hawthorne HQ \u2013 Mr. Musk has big plans for the CRS-8 S1.<\/p>\n *Click here for more SpaceX News Articles*<\/p>\n Those plans may include a paying customer, launching a payload that has yet to be revealed.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s likely,\u201d noted Mr. Musk on achieving the milestone of reflying the booster on an upcoming mission. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to relaunch (this booster) on an orbital mission around May or June\u2026let\u2019s say June. In the future, we\u2019ll be able to launch them (again) within a few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n Testing at that pad was the original plan for the OG-2 booster, before switching to Falcon 9\u2019s primary home at SLC-40.<\/p>\n However, with 39A now \u201cpad active\u201d, the test firings would provide a good shake out of the pad that is being prepared for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches, as soon as this year.<\/p>\n The \u201clanding of first stages\u201d is in itself a major achievement, one which many commentators said would not be possible. Even Mr. Musk did not shy away from the potential of the technology failing to work as required.<\/p>\n With successful landings at both land and sea, SpaceX will now continue to refine the technology and feed it into their overall aspirations of \u201cfull and rapid\u201d reusability that will blaze a path to reducing the costs associated with the launch phase of a mission.<\/p>\n \u201cIn order for us to open up access to space, we\u2019ve got to achieve full and rapid reusability. Being able to do that for the booster is a huge impact on costs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019ll take a few years to make that smooth and efficient, but it\u2019s proven it can work. There will probably be some failures in the future, but we\u2019ll iron those out to the point where it\u2019s routine and where the only changes to the rocket are to hose it down, give it a wash, add the propellant and fly again.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the key.\u201d<\/p>\n (Images: SpaceX, Marek Cyzio (including shots from this video montage) and L2 SpaceX \u2013 including renders (Core Testing at 39A and FH Stages Returning) from L2 artist Nathan Koga \u2013 The full gallery of Nathan\u2019s (SpaceX Dragon to MCT, SLS, Commercial Crew and more) L2 images can be *found here*)<\/p>\n (To join L2, click here: \/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/l2\/)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Falcon 9 first stage that successfully landed on the deck of the Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS) barge on Friday sailed into Port Canaveral early on Tuesday. Riding atop \u201cOf Course I Still Love You\u201d the stage is hoping to conduct around ten static test fires ahead of SpaceX\u2019s next reusability milestone of launching the flown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30110,"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":[3353,479,311,316],"class_list":["post-39091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-asds","tag-falcon-9","tag-reusability","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39091"}],"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=39091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}See Also<\/h4>\n
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![\"2016-04-12-010419\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/2016-04-12-010419-350x235.jpg\")
With the stage secured on the deck with steel hold downs welded on to the landing leg feet, the long journey back to Port Canaveral has taken several days, negotiating some challenging sea states and windy conditions.<\/p>\n![\"2016-04-13-195722\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/2016-04-13-195722-350x230.jpg\")
Now in port, the next phase involved the removal of the stage from the ASDS ahead of transportation. The crane used was already in position before the drone ship\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n![\"2016-04-12-054707\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/2016-04-12-054707-350x243.jpg\")
The path to a second launch for the stage will only come after rigorous testing to ensure the stage and engines are ready for what will be a hugely historic milestone.<\/p>\n![\"2016-01-16-010057\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/2016-01-16-010057-350x207.jpg\")
Although the set plan is yet to be fully worked out, the likely housing of the booster for post-flight processing is set to be the Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) at SpaceX\u2019s Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), which also opens up the potential debut use of the \u201cnew\u201d pad for the ten test firings.<\/p>\n![\"2016-04-12-044050\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/2016-04-12-044050-350x217.jpg\")
Overall, the incremental successes now being achieved by SpaceX \u2013 since testing picked up the pace in 2013 \u2013 should not be underestimated.<\/p>\n![\"2016-04-12-044307\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/2016-04-12-044307-350x212.jpg\")
\u201cI think it\u2019s a really good milestone for the future of space flight, it\u2019s another step towards the stars,\u201d Mr. Musk said.<\/p>\n