History Made- SpaceX lands first stage of its Falcon 9 orbital rocket back on land!

[Audio]

Yes, but spacex has the biggest advantage of all right now, a returned booster to dissect! This will help them further refine their capabilities.

That is true and i wish them the best of luck.

 

[thesolar65]

Quite Impressive!!

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

https://twitter.com/x/status/679117138318110720

X Prize CEO

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

SpaceX Successfully Lands Rocket and Sets a Course for Mars - Scientific American


Elon Musk's Mars dream is looking more and more achievable.

Musk's company, SpaceX, successfully landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during an orbital launch Monday night (Dec. 21). The historic accomplishment brings SpaceX a big step closer to developing fully and rapidly reusable rockets — technology that Musk says is vital to the colonization of Mars.

"It makes all the difference in the world — absolutely fundamental," Musk said in a teleconference after Monday night's launch and landing. "And I think it [the rocket landing] really dramatically improves my confidence that a city on Mars is possible. You know, that's what all this is about." [SpaceX's Epic Falcon 9 Rocket Landing in Pictures]

Indeed, Musk has said repeatedly that he founded SpaceX in 2002 primarily to help make humanity a multiplanet species. Colonizing Mars would lead to great scientific advances, would drastically lower humanity's odds of extinction and would be a great "adventure story" that would inspire and intrigue people around the world, Musk said Dec. 15 at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco.

Musk believes that humanity will have a hard time extending its footprint out into the solar system under the spaceflight status quo, which relies on expensive, expendable rockets. Reusable-rocket technology is a key innovation that could open up the heavens to exploration by slashing costs, Musk has said.

"The Falcon 9 rocket costs about $16 million to build — it is kind of like a big jet — but the cost of the propellant . . . is only about $200,000," he said during Monday night's telecon. "So that means that the potential cost reduction in the long term is probably in excess of a factor of a hundred."

So SpaceX has been developing reusable-rocket technology for years now. For example, the company flew a prototype called Grasshopper numerous times in 2012 and 2013, bringing the booster back down for soft landings at SpaceX's Texas test site after brief flights that reached a maximum altitude of 2,440 feet (744 meters).

SpaceX then began testing reusable versions of the Falcon 9, eventually gaining enough experience and confidence to fly the rocket's first stage back for landing attempts during orbital launches.

SpaceX managed to pull off "water landings" that lowered the booster stage softly into the Atlantic Ocean, and twice nearly succeeded in bringing the rocket down on an uncrewed ship. Both times — in January 2015, and again in April — the Falcon 9 first stage hit the target but toppled over on the ship's deck and exploded.

And on Monday night, the Falcon 9 made history, coming down for a soft landing during a launch that also delivered 11 satellites to orbit for SpaceXcustomer Orbcomm. (Blue Origin, a spaceflight company established by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, landed a rocket in November, but that accomplishment came after a flight to suborbital rather than orbital space.)

So the path to a Mars colony perhaps looks a little clearer today than it did yesterday. But humanity still has a lot of work to do to set up a permanent outpost on the Red Planet, Musk said.

"It will be superhard to do this, and it will take a lot of time," he said at AGU on Dec. 15. "I suspect I probably won't live to see it become self-sustaining."

 

[NP-complete]

When we reach 100% privatization of space industry that will be the turning point in space exploration. Then this industry will be powered by the global financial system. Governments are woefully poor comparatively.

 

[General Observer]

It looks like all those Grasshopper test flights paid off

 

[gambit]

Here's Why the SpaceX Rocket Landing Is Such a Big Deal - NBC News

This is a big deal because rockets are expensive. The Falcon 9 that SpaceX uses costs around $60 million to build, the company told NBC News. Fuel costs per launch are about $200,000.

Most rockets are designed to burn up during re-entry. That means rebuilding a $60 million rocket for every single space mission— not exactly the most cost-effective system.

Reusable rockets, however, would mean cargo could be sent into space with only the fuel and maintenance costs to consider.

"If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred," Musk said on SpaceX's website.

If it's 100 times cheaper to send something into space, imagine how many more companies would be able to launch space ventures, ranging from satellites to commercial space flights.

"With lower costs and competition, prices could fall, stimulating demand for more access to space," Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, told NBC News.

While the Falcon 9 landing was "an important" step toward reusable rockets, Pace said, SpaceX engineers still have a lot of work to do. So far, they have managed to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket.

"The next step is to see how much it costs and how long it takes to refurbish the recovered stage and fly it again," Pace said.

And here we got guys on this forum who can barely tell the differences between a hammer and a wrench praising Russian technology.

 

[Indika]

Reusable rockets are commendable but unless they become like jet engines it will still not be economical yet.
Second thing is the fatigue in the structure after every launch means more detailed inspection and repair. Some times it is better to build from scratch instead of spending nook & corner to fix things.

 

[ultron]

It is not the structure that is expensive. It is the fuel that is expensive. Earth has a lot of gravity and the fuel is quite special.

 

[gambit]

Reusable rockets are commendable but unless they become like jet engines it will still not be economical yet.
Second thing is the fatigue in the structure after every launch means more detailed inspection and repair. Some times it is better to build from scratch instead of spending nook & corner to fix things.

What do you think this project is for if not to explore all the technical issues to make reusables economically viable ?

Unless people are willing and more importantly ABLE to provide credible TECHNICAL criticisms as to why it will always be more expensive to remanufacture and reuse -- STFU.

The main reason why the Space Shuttle cannot be from private companies is because the sheer scale of that reusable vehicle. A scale that only a government with near unlimited resources can provide. But from a technical perspective, the Space Shuttle was a pioneer and a great success in the progress of using reusables.

 

[xyxmt]

Wait till Chinese do it at 1/10th of the cost and 5 times bigger, ummm maybe in 2 years.

 

[anon45]

Wait till Chinese do it at 1/10th of the cost and 5 times bigger, ummm maybe in 2 years.

Better get a move on then, Falcon Heavy is launching next year, and it also lifts about 5 times more than the falcon 9

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

SpaceX Sticks Rocket Landing in Its First Launch Since Summer Tragedy | Motherboard

"In a post launch press conference, Elon Musk expressed his excitement for the launch and landing and what this means for the future of spaceflight. “After liftoff, I went out to the causeway and at first I thought the booster had exploded because I heard the sonic boom right as the stage touched down,” Musk said. “We could not have asked for a more perfect mission, it was absolutely perfect, with the booster touching down almost dead center.

Right now, one Falcon 9 rocket costs $60 million dollars to make and SpaceX is cranking out one rocket every three weeks. With fuel costs equaling $200 thousand to fuel one rocket, booster reusability will dramatically reduce the costs of rockets by as much as a factor of 100.”

 

[EAsian]

SpaceX Sticks Rocket Landing in Its First Launch Since Summer Tragedy | Motherboard

"In a post launch press conference, Elon Musk expressed his excitement for the launch and landing and what this means for the future of spaceflight. “After liftoff, I went out to the causeway and at first I thought the booster had exploded because I heard the sonic boom right as the stage touched down,” Musk said. “We could not have asked for a more perfect mission, it was absolutely perfect, with the booster touching down almost dead center.

Right now, one Falcon 9 rocket costs $60 million dollars to make and SpaceX is cranking out one rocket every three weeks. With fuel costs equaling $200 thousand to fuel one rocket, booster reusability will dramatically reduce the costs of rockets by as much as a factor of 100.”

Another kind of little space shuttle.When space shuttle was made out,the launching cost was supposed to be much cheaper than rocket,but the maintaining cost just became more and more expansive.Not sure this time will be different or not.

 

[kadamba-warrior]

Awesome feat! That's the US we have gotten used to see over the decades. Great to see it create history in space yet again!

A noob question! Wouldn't it have been far easier and economical to just land it gently using giant parachutes? Or even just get it gliding on a runway just like the shuttle did?

Any experts here as to why it had to be landed in upright position at such a huge cost (rocket fuel) and complexity?

@gambit @Penguin