Spacex complete's historic launch by putting first stage back on land

[FireJack]

 

This could be a pretty big game changer if all goes well tomorrow.

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/spacex/2015/12/19/spacex-aims-sunday-rocket-launch-landing-cape-canaveral/77640694/

 

 

SpaceX could deliver a Space Coast double feature on Sunday evening, returning its Falcon 9 rocket to flight after a six-month layoff and then making a historic attempt to land the rocket's first stage back on shore.

 

A successful touchdown on legs within 10 minutes of liftoff would be a breakthrough in Musk’s vision to lower launch costs by recovering and reusing rockets. “It’s really a massive difference if we can make reusability work,” Musk said last week.

 

(bold mine)

 

     What is exciting about this launch (other than being spacex's return to flight) is  the intention to land the first stage back on ground. With the new more powerful falcon design, they can now reuse the first stage for all launches. This means that spacex could launch a payload into orbit for less than $10 million, a fraction of what anyone else can do. 

If they can do the same with the falcon heavy (land all 3 first stages) they will (IMO) be a decade ahead of any competition.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Heavy

 

By late 2013, SpaceX prices for space launch were already the lowest in the industry.^[49] If SpaceX is able to successfully complete development on its SpaceX reusable rocket technology and return booster stages to the launch pad for reuse—enabling even lower launch prices—a new economically-driven Space Age could result.

 

youtube video of launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5bTbVbe4e4

 

Launch at 23:03 min

Booster landing at  32:25 min

[zacRupnow]

Neat.

[Albatross]

This man is vert determined. For that, I pray his endeavors are successful.

[XTankSlayerX]

This is a great birthday present/event haha.

 

I'll be watching.

[RagnarokDel]

What I didnt get when I saw the attempt the last time was, why are they trying to land on a barge at sea instead of an island connected by a land bridge? I feel like it would be much easier when the landing platform doesnt move. Another thing I thought was why dont they land it using an integrated quadcopter instead of their rockets?

I'm not sure why it has to land upright, they're not planning on reusing it without making some checks first, right?

[Agent181]

about time they due it, blue origins did it last month, time for me to get an internship there  

[captain cactus]

What I didnt get when I saw the attempt the last time was, why are they trying to land on a barge at sea instead of an island connected by a land bridge? I feel like it would be much easier when the landing platform doesnt move. Another thing I thought was why dont they land it using an integrated quadcopter instead of their rockets?

I'm not sure why it has to land upright, they're not planning on reusing it without making some checks first, right?

 

Safety. If it goes south with the guidance the 1st stage crashes into the see harmlessly instead of in somebody's back yard.  The last time they tried (before the next blew up) they almost got it right. It tipped over at the last second due to wind and went kaboom.

And yes, they will give it the safety checks it needs. It's just much easier (and way cheaper) to load a rocket that landed on land onto a vehicle back to the VAB than it is to either completely build a new one or tug it back to shore like how NASA did with the Shuttle's SRBs.

 

about time they due it, blue origins did it last month, time for me to get an internship there

With the exception that the Blue Origins rocket went much lower than the Falcon 9's first stage. Also remember that the latter is an orbit-capable rocket. There are a bit more things to go wrong here. Still, credit where it's due, Blue Origins landed a rocket back on the launch pad, but if we keep this in terms of going to space the Blue Origins rocket was like SpaceX's Grasshopper.

[Agent181]

With the exception that the Blue Origins rocket went much lower than the Falcon 9's first stage. Also remember that the latter is an orbit-capable rocket. There are a bit more things to go wrong here. Still, credit where it's due, Blue Origins landed a rocket back on the launch pad, but if we keep this in terms of going to space the Blue Origins rocket was like SpaceX's Grasshopper.

Oh believe me I know all about this, I am studying for this and it's a lot harder than just this 

[Counter-Strike Player]

Let's see, they've already tried once, twice, a third time...yeah no kidding Elon (talking about Boeing in that interview.) I'll shut my mouth if it happens tomorrow though.

 

Could be worse, they could be "Mars One" and just produce videos like this:

 

[IAMSWIFT1]

This is a great birthday present/event haha.

 

I'll be watching.

The 20th Is Your Birthday Too?

[XTankSlayerX]

The 20th Is Your Birthday Too?

Yeah! Happy birthday to you i would assume as well?

[Tataffe]

It should be illegal to post a topic about an upcoming rocket launch without the launch date and time.

 

Monday 2015-12-21, 01:29 UTC

Sunday 2015-12-20, 8:29 pm EST

[suicidalfranco]

Let's see, they've already tried once, twice, a third time...yeah no kidding Elon (talking about Boeing in that interview.) I'll shut my mouth if it happens tomorrow though.

 

Could be worse, they could be "Mars One" and just produce videos like this:

 

gotta colonize mars with style

[IAMSWIFT1]

Yeah! Happy birthday to you i would assume as well?

Yeah, Happy Birthday to you too

[FireJack]

 

It should be illegal to post a topic about an upcoming rocket launch without the launch date and time.

 

Monday 2015-12-21, 01:29 UTC

Sunday 2015-12-20, 8:29 pm EST

I knew I'd miss something.   To add to this the event will be livestreamed at http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

 

What is significant about this launch is that (if successful) spacex will do what every other rocket company said was impossible, to launch a reusable rocket economically.   There is no one who is even close to matching what spacex could do.

I just can't imagine being an investor in something like European Space Agency (ESA) and seeing that not only is their current rocket inferior in every way their future rocket design (Ariane 6) is already  obsolete. Anyone working at the ESA with half a brain will look at spacex and say "okay guys, spacex is going to launch their falcon heavy in may, if it succeeds, we have no reason to exist."  Even NASA's future SLS is under fire for being an expensive (around 500 mill a launch) and inferior especially if the Mars colonial transporter works out. 

 

Of course there is the future launch of the falcon heavy, which if it's successful in reusing all 3 first stage engines, will leave spacex without competition

[Mo_z_Art]

So anybody know how it went because I think the start should have been 20mins ago?. Or did I misscalculate the different timezones?

[Guest Kloaked]

This man is vert determined. For that, I pray his endeavors are successful.

 

How determined is vert determined?

[ICantThinkOfAnyGoodName]

So anybody know how it went because I think the start should have been 20mins ago?. Or did I misscalculate the different timezones?

It's still more then four hours until the launch.

[FireJack]

Musk tweeted that tomorrow has a 10% higher chance of a good landing. Punting 24 hrs.  That would make it 8:34 EST Monday.

[Counter-Strike Player]

If you guys also want to watch something potentially interesting in the meantime tomorrow, an "unscheduled" spacewalk with 2 astronauts will happen sometime "around" 7:10AM CST/13:10 UTC Monday to fix a (yet another) problem on the ISS -- this time a stuck robotic arm that's needed for another cargo ship launched from Russia and will be arriving Wednesday. I gotta warn you though, it's quite boring after say 5 minutes, and periodic Ku-band (video signal) blackouts are common when ISS antennas fly out of range of ground stations.

 

The Falcon 9 attempt is re-scheduled for 8:33PM EST Monday (01:33 UTC Tuesday.)

[Albatross]

How determined is vert determined?

 

Well 'scuse me, mister. Not everyone has Nicolas Cage to go over their posts. :angry:

[FireJack]

I'm very interested to see how other launch providers will react. If spacex starts offering launches with the used rockets for 5-7 million like they hope, this will open up space for many people and businesses and make space tourism reachable.

 

 Those people at the ESA or the ULA who will be watching this launch must be thinking "what are we going to do if they are successful."  They ULA is already abandoning bids on military contracts knowing that they have no chance to compete against spacex. Even their future vulcan rocket (the one being built with Jeff Bezos help) will not likely be competitive.  

 

The ESA (european space agency) is looking at a rocket that can out compete even their new ariane 6, a rocket that will not be ready for another decade at least. A successful falcon heavy (especially with 3 reusable first stages) will make all their future designs obsolete. I can see a lot of cries for the closure or a complete re-haul of the ESA if come May spacex see a successful launch and reuse of the falcon heavy.  Spacex already has 4 orders for the falcon heavy in 2016 alone.

 

This assumes of course that the rocket doesn't blow up on the way up. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

[Counter-Strike Player]

"Precision" landing zone: http://livestream.com/spacex/events/4600161/images/107539974

[FireJack]

11 minutes and its still a go. This could be a historic moment. 

[Nineshadow]

Aaaand...liftoff!