Falcon 9 soft lands on water
SpaceX claimed in a press release on Tuesday that it had successfully completed a soft splashdown of the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket in its launch earlier this month.
Video below the fold. The quality is not great because of a buildup of ice on the camera, but it does show they were able to restart the engines twice after separation. It also shows the landing legs deploy just before the stage hovers above the water.
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SpaceX claimed in a press release on Tuesday that it had successfully completed a soft splashdown of the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket in its launch earlier this month.
Video below the fold. The quality is not great because of a buildup of ice on the camera, but it does show they were able to restart the engines twice after separation. It also shows the landing legs deploy just before the stage hovers above the water.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I’ve never read where Spacex plans to land spent rockets on solid ground since their boosters and certainly second stages are well down range and over water from current US space ports when their engines shut down after launch.
Seems like quite an achievement. BRAVO!
Is SpaceX a private company? If so, does Elon Musk have plans to take it public like he did with Tesla?
I believe the intention is to return the 1st stage back to a location near the launch pad along the Florida coast. Apparently they have done the calculations and feel they have enough fuel for such a turnaround.
Musk has said from the day he started SpaceX that he could not meet his goals without a reusable vehicle. Retaining enough propellant in the first stage for flyback does drop payload for each launch. However, SpaceX believes they can do 10 launches with the same first stage before major refurbishment (the Shuttle needed that every flight), and 100 launches total before the vehicle was worn out.
The second stage does *not* fly back directly to the launch site, but goes into orbit with the payload. Then, its retained propellant allows it to turn so its engine faces forwards, deorbit itself, flip again so that the front end, with the same sort of PICA-X heat shield on it as the Dragon capsule has, faces forwards. It re-enters, and once it becomes sub-sonic again flips again so that its main engine can brake it to a landing on land, just like the first stage does.
The total drop in payload from both stages being reused is estimated to be 30%. However, if they meet their goals of 100 flights per vehicle, this means that instead of launching 13.5 metric tons with each Falcon 9, they will launch 945 metric tons with it. Similar numbers are calculable for the Falcon Heavy. Combine this with the high flight rates they expect from lower costs, that will make far better use of their ground crew staff, and they believe they can make a good profit at 1/100th the present price per pound to orbit.
SpaceX *is* privately held. While there are advantages to going public, Musk has stated he will not do so until the Mars community is started. This is because going public means *anyone* can buy in to significant stock. If pension fund managers do this to the extent they influence a SpaceX Board of Directors, and find themselves in a bind for cash, as seems probable in the next 10 years, then they could demand Musk drop his plans for a Mars settlement program. That program is the whole reason he started SpaceX. So, going public will probably be put off till sometime in the 2030s.
Small correction: The Falcon 9 2nd stage won’t land with its main engine. On a typical mission,there won’t be much propellant left and the Merlin 1-D Vacuum engine delivers 180,000 lbs. of thrust. It can’t be throttled anywhere near low enough to land something as light as a near-empty 2nd stage. I believe reusable 2nd stages will have a pair of Super Draco’s added, in addition to the heat shield, to support powered landing.
Richard Branson, call your office.
There’s cool, and then there’s SpaceX.
Musk is a classic entrepreneur, a visionary willing to take calculated risks in an effort to meet his goal. I doubt that he could sustain Spacex’s disruptive, brash and leading edge business style with the inevitable scrutiny from investors who look for stability and predictability. It would be too much of a distraction. A few launch scrubs or delays and they would be calling for his head.
If the schedule holds up, and we know there are always delays, the first solid surface landing, on an off-shore barge or on actual land, will take place towards the end of this year. Imagine the effect on the industry when that stage lands intact on a solid surface. Imagine the even greater effect when that same stage is relaunched successfully for another flight!
Bob Clark
The effect when that first solid soft landing happens will be electrifying, but the effect is already happening. SpaceX has forced the entire launch industry — which has done nothing new or innovative for decades — to rethink everything it is doing, and to do this rethink fast. Things are going to get very exciting over the next few years.