SpaceX 12-21-15 FIRST EVER SUCCESSFUL FALCON 9 ROCKET LANDING Published on Dec 21, 2015
Elon Musk's SpaceX completed its first ever automated landing for an orbital vehicle on 12-21-15. This marks the beginning of a new era of reusable rocket technology. SpaceX will now be able to save millions of dollars on future launches. Congrats to Elon Musk and the SpaceX team!
Would damage the rocket. Also can't really aim a parachute.
I'm glad to see that they finally abandoned the idea of trying to land on a moving platform in the ocean. Probably more fuel efficient since it can follow its ballistic arc to the barge and not have to turn around and come back to dry ground to land, but those crashes were getting expensive. Bravo, spacex!
Because boosters are insanely fragile hollow tubes barely able to stand up. Crashing into water tends to trash them. Certainly gets stuff wet. Parachutes land them too hard.
You have to understand the philosophical reason.
Artillery you throw away.
Rockets at NASA have long been artillery. Wernher Von Braun, made artillery rockets, the first IRBMs with the V-2 during WW2. That culture became NASA's as they used artillery rockets for Mercury and Gemini.
Airplanes you use over again.
Imagine the ticket cost to New Zealand if they threw away the 747 after one flight.
Originally the Space Shuttle was supposed to have a reusable first stage, but they went short term cheap and we got a fuel tank and solid boosters. ( artillery ) Throwing up a marginal airplane. ( which had to be rebuilt every time you flew it. Also impractical and too expensive.) But. It was supposed to be a transitional design to give us practice at the real, later, re-usable orbital machines. ( which we have yet to build, but they are working on it. )
One Stage to Orbit designs are scary marginal, and some smart folk have worked on them for years. It's the ideal they are working towards, a one piece reusable machine. Meanwhile, we use 2 or 3 part machines and throw big, expensive parts away.
So you need to land the booster softly.
Wings are heavier than the extra fuel needed to land like a 1950's Sci-Fi rocket ship, so Space-X and others are working on that. It's not easy.
The above video shows a major accomplishment, and a vital step to cheaper space. ( and space is where all the good stuff is! )
I was watching the live stream while standing in the driveway hoping to see it but just too much cloud cover.
The landing was amazing. It almost looked like something from a movie.
With the success i expect to see a whole lot more launches.
SpaceX built a huge building at nasa to work on that project. The new shuttle exhibit at nasa is very cool also. I took my dad when he was here this year during fathers day.
This is huge. As big as when scaled composites put a civilian into space for the first time. I wish nasa was still a space exploration agency. I had such high hopes as a child.
