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May – June reuse: SpaceX CRS-8 totals


Record landing in 4K (2160p).

On Cape Canaveral yesterday was a great weather to run: warm, about twenty-five degrees, almost without clouds and wind, with no chance of precipitation. Without any interference at 23:43 Moscow time (at 16:43 local time) the Falcon 9 Full Thrust rocket was torn off from the SLC-40 launch complex. At its top was a Dragon ship with supplies for the International Space Station, experiments, equipment and an inflatable BEAM module in an unsealed “trunk”.

As a result of the planned work of the two stages of the launch vehicle, the space truck is on its way to the station. On Sunday, he will approach a sufficient distance so that he can be caught by a robotic manipulator and docked to the nadir hub of the Harmony module. This means a lot after the unsuccessful launch of June 2015, during which the previous “Dragon” was lost. BEAM will dock on April 15-16 and deployed on May 25-26.
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But it's not just the successful launch of a cargo ship, of which there were hundreds. The first stage of the rocket worked its allotted time, turned off the engines and separated. She completed the maneuver to quench the speed. Then SpaceX made another attempt to land the first step at the sea spaceport. For the first time landing at sea ended successfully.

Landing itself is not the first. Do not blow up the first stage of Falcon 9, the company has already turned out in December last year. Then landing on a specially built complex on Cape Canaveral, not far from the launch site itself. This time landing on a cape was allowed by flight parameters. But they chose an autonomous ship.

At a press conference after the launch, the head of SpaceX Ilon Mask explained why landing on floating platforms is still being worked out. The fact is that the first stage after separation has tremendous speed. To pay it off, you need a lot of fuel. But it is necessary for launching a payload, that is, for launching large loads and / or into a high orbit with an interesting inclination angle for the customer. Therefore, to achieve reuse you need to learn how to land in the ocean.

Half of the launches in the future will be on land, the other half - into the ocean. Perhaps, once the number of landings at sea will fall to a third or even a quarter, but technology still needs to be worked out. In addition, the flight route does not always pass over sparsely populated territories.



This landing was a success. The task is not easy, given the scale of the rocket, its speed and tiny barge. Musk said that the company was confident in a good chance of success - two to one. Corrected all the problems that showed previous attempts. If something happened, for some new reason.

With this landing, the floating spaceport Of Course I Still Love You rocked by 2-3 degrees - not so much. In SpaceX can easily achieve that the rocket does not overturn when landing at angles of two times more, and if you try - and three.

The ultimate goal of working out the landing of parts of missiles is to significantly reduce the cost of launches. The fact is that the huge cost of launching cargo into Earth’s orbit largely consists of the cost of disposable missiles. Road transport would also be expensive if after each trip a new car would be sent to a landfill. In comparison with the cost of the aircraft, refueling - a penny. Practicing landing first stage - a fundamental step in the direction of the conquest of the stars, according to SpaceX.


Landing from the camera on the F9-023. Visible are the trellis rudders, which the step ruled during descent.

But the level planted in December will not fly anywhere. She will remain a kind of success talisman, the first dollar of the buyer, which the store owners hang in a frame on the wall. Is that this talisman tall, for it even needs permission. The fact is that the central office of SpaceX in Hawthorne, California is located near the airport, and the installation of such a high facility will require the authorization of the relevant authorities.

But the second planted already have chances for reuse. Musk said that the step will arrive at the port on Sunday. And the question of its reuse will be considered. To this end, Cape Canaveral will hold a series of ten engine test starts. And if these ten tests show positive results, the stage will fly again.

Mask called the possible time of re-launch: May or, most likely, June. In the future, SpaceX hopes to use the old steps a few weeks after the last flight. Maybe sometime the rockets will be launched almost as fast as passenger airliners. For example, the Boeing 747 takes off again after some hours after the previous flight.


Musk tweeted this video, but quickly deleted it. The video superimposed the sound of the song "I'm on the ship," a parody of The Lonely Island on the stamps of rap videos.

The first launch with the returned first stage will not be purely experimental. Probably fly someone satellite. So far, the issues of acceptability and customer choice are discussed. The previous data says that SpaceX is preparing to sell launches with the first stage used for $ 43 million instead of the usual 61 million for the flight of the new Falcon 9.

Resource reuse is high. As Musk says, without replacing the parts, it should turn out to be 20, with small updates you can get closer to a hundred starts.

The object was fixed on the ship so that it would not turn over - a strong wind is possible. So, on Sunday in space, the Dragon will dock with the ISS, and on Earth a step will arrive at the port. The four supports for the landing are collapsed, the stage will be lifted by a crane and brought to a horizontal position. And then the question of those ten test inclusions will arise.


With success Mask congratulated the President of the United States.

There is still a lot of work for SpaceX. Failure last June broke the schedule of start-ups. To catch up with him, now to be accelerated. In the third to fourth quarter, Falcon 9 will soar into the sky once every couple of weeks. And despite the fact that the company manages to work out the issues of reuse and the future of the largest up to SLS rocket Falcon Heavy. Plans to reuse the latter will require landing at once three separate parts of the rocket.

Ilon himself has time to take part in SolarCity and lead Tesla Motors. The electric car maker recently introduced the Model 3 electric car. The dream of the Mask remains to achieve Mars. At the press conference, he did not give new information about the plans of the Martian rocket, which he promises to show in September .

The next two landings will also pass on the ship, then at one of the launches the first step will be planted on land.

Launch videos from various points
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/392787/

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