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Ars Technica reports SpaceX launches, and lands its "flight proven" rocket:
SpaceX did it. Its flown booster launched on Thursday evening from Florida, delivered its payload into orbit, and then returned safely to Earth by landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. During a brief interview on the SpaceX webcast, company founder Elon Musk was almost at a loss for words. "It's been 15 years to get to this point," he said. "It's taken us a long time. A lot of difficult steps along the way."
Ars will have a comprehensive, new story posted later tonight.
Cnet reports SpaceX launches recycled rocket in historic first:
A few minutes after sending the Dragon on its way April 8, [2016] the rocket successfully landed on the SpaceX drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Atlantic Ocean. It was the first such Falcon 9 landing attempt that didn't end in a spectacular explosion. Clearly, this rocket had to be the one.
The rocket was recovered, reconditioned and reloaded for its second launch, which happened at 3:27 p.m. PT Thursday.
Roughly ten minutes later the Falcon 9 made its second visit to "Of Course I Still Love You" of the coast of Florida, landing right in the center of the landing pad bullseye.
"This is going to be ultimately a huge revolution in spaceflight," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said immediately after the landing. "It's the difference between if you had airplanes where you threw away an airplane after every flight versus you could reuse them multiple times."
Way to go SpaceX! I have watched rocket launches from way back in the Mercury, Gemini, and Saturn days, as well as many Shuttle launches. That we have finally reached a point where we can successfully vertically land then re-use rocket boosters kindles a feeling of amazement and awe in me that I struggle to put into words! This certainly adds credence to Elon Musk's plans to reduce the cost of commercial space launches and bodes well for his Mars ambitions, as well!
[Updated: 00:55 UTC] Launch and landing are available on YouTube: SES-10 Hosted Webcast and SES-10 Technical Webcast.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 31 2017, @04:10AM (3 children)
In 2016, SpaceX managed 8 successful launches and despite a launch failure disrupting their schedule for five months of last year, have since done four more launches so far this year. SpaceX is on track to achieve a higher launch rate than the Space Shuttle this year. A high launch rate and this reusability program will I think make the difference, particularly if they can get the Falcon Heavy going as well.
High launch rate is what makes reusability viable. I think SpaceX is on track to make that happen.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday March 31 2017, @07:43AM (2 children)
Musk has a habit of promoting these "revolutionary" ideas of his own, when in fact they're usually old ideas that were well known and understood long before he came on the scene. He's just waited until technology advanced a bit more, making the idea a bit more easily implemented, then he comes along and pays some engineers to implement it. Which is fine, really, all except for this pretending to be a fount of original ideas and inventions, which is exactly the opposite of what he actually is.
People have been working on re-usable launch vehicles since the 1960s at least, and the idea is much older. A man who stands there with a straight face and claims it as his own "revolutionary" insight has the character of a con man and should be viewed with deep suspicion at best. Certainly not with the squealing hero-worship he gets around here.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Friday March 31 2017, @10:47AM
Musk has a habit of promoting these "revolutionary" ideas of his own, when in fact they're usually old ideas that were well known and understood long before he came on the scene.
SpaceX wouldn't exist, if that were true. The forty year period through to 2005, the year that SpaceX was founded is a period of squandered lessons and stagnation in the industry.
He's just waited until technology advanced a bit more, making the idea a bit more easily implemented, then he comes along and pays some engineers to implement it. Which is fine, really, all except for this pretending to be a fount of original ideas and inventions, which is exactly the opposite of what he actually is.
Then where are the previous SpaceX's of the past forty years? Orbital Sciences was the only success outside of companies (presently, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and United Launch Alliance) that were already established aerospace firms in 1965 and they stagnated as just another government contractor in the early 1990s. There are numerous businesses throughout the late 1980s and 1990s which attempted to build that illusive cheap rocket to orbit (including Beal Aerospace, E'Prime Aerospace, and Rotary Rocket to name some examples from the late 1990s). SpaceX succeeded where there had been a lot of failure.
Currently, SpaceX is on track this year to reach second place behind the Chinese Long March rocket and if they can get Falcon Heavy to launch later this year, they'll have a rocket that no one can currently match.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday March 31 2017, @04:30PM
Jobs didn't invent the phone with a touchscreen, nor the tablet
Gates didn't invent the windowed operating system
Berners-Lee didn't invent networking
Boeing didn't invent the jet plane
...
When the market and tech are finally ready, old ideas become viable, and someone gets the credit for making the first practical implementation, despite/by learning from the people who tried too early ...