SpaceX set for historic relaunch of Falcon rocket
- by Nick Cohen
- in Industry
- — Mar 31, 2017
Elon Musk's SpaceX is preparing to launch its previously used, or "flight proven", Falcon 9 rocket into space for the first time in aviation history.
SpaceX, Musk's rocket company, has scheduled the potentially historic launch for Thursday, March 30.
The payload will be SES-10, a communications satellite that will deliver broadcasting and broadband service to Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America.
SpaceX plans to launch as many as six used boosters in 2017. Also, reusable rockets will shave off a significant financial part of future space missions, making rockets to be used as airplanes.
SpaceX also has some competition, with Blue Origin - a company run by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos - already successfully landing its rocket, called the New Shepard.
The company is aiming to fly about every two to three weeks, a pace that will be easier to maintain if it can refly its rockets and once repairs to the damaged launch pad are finished later this year.
The part of the rocket that is being recycled is its main body, which separates from the top part of the rocket and then barrels back to Earth, NBC News reported. By some estimates, being able to reuse the first stage of the rocket and paying for minor repairs could save between ten and one hundred million dollars per launch.
The recovered first stage on the SpaceX droneship in Port Canaveral. Musk is confident that the rocket boosters could be reused more than 100 times. "In order to make that work, you need to inspect it and make sure it is ready to fly again".
Logsdon believes that SES must have received the 30 percent discount, or maybe SpaceX didn't charge them at all since it is a demonstrations flight. After launch, the first stage landed on SpaceX's autonomous drone ship Of Course I Still Love You where it was ferried back to Port Canaveral, Florida. "That really is the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionise access to space". Alternatively, we could scrap "liquid-fueled" and add something about the booster landing upright, rather than splashing into the ocean under parachutes like shuttle boosters.
When the mission was announced in August 2016, Halliwell said the deal "illustrates the faith we have in SpaceX's technical and operational expertise".
Here, the launch vehicle is brought back down to the Earth's surface, refurbished to nix out quirks, and then reused for another flight.
While the rocket that landed in December 2015 now stands on display outside SpaceX headquarters, in Hawthorne, Calif., the Falcon 9 that landed in April 2016 is now being put to the ultimate test. The Falcon 9 rocket appears to be nearly ready for its second trip into the cosmos.
