SpaceX did it. Tonight the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket soared into space, separated from the second stage, and then implemented a managed return back to the landing site in Florida. This historic flight marked the beginning of the orbital economy, promising a future of extremely cheap space flight, which for so long insisted Masks.
The company SpaceX attempted to land a rocket on an Autonomous drone barge. The first time the rocket landed too hard and exploded on impact. The second attempt was again not as smooth, the rocket broke two legs and fell over. The third attempt, which was realized in the newly appointed landing site less than a mile from processing companies, SpaceX in Florida, was that too smoothly.
“I wasn’t completely confident that everything will go smoothly, but I am very glad of it, said Musk on the call in response to the question ArsTechnica. — It’s been 13 years since the start of SpaceX. We’ve been so close. I think people are overjoyed”.
On the broadcast attempts touchdowns, which was held a few hours later, after sunset, appeared a brilliant light, falling from the sky, and when the smoke cleared, the rocket was already on the ground. A few minutes before this first stage of the Falcon 9 soared to 200 kilometers into space from the Florida coast, using rails engines to nitrogen, made a sudden turn, ran the motors to form reverse ballistic arc, and finally went to the Ground to re-enter the atmosphere and land with engines aimed at the ground, which should work exactly in the moment of landing.
While SpaceX staff watched the action from headquarters in Hawthorne, California, they began quietly to enjoy, and then began to chant “S-s-A! S-S-A!”. SpaceX is one of two American companies that build rockets, to end NASA’s dependence on Russian rockets for transport to the International space station. However, SpaceX is unique in that its neither rocket nor the spacecraft does not rely on Russian suppliers.
For the rocket launch is closely watched for several reasons. First, it marked the successful return of SpaceX to fly after the crash of the Falcon 9 rocket in June. The company also launched 11 communications satellites ORBCOMM above the Ground. In addition, the space went a modernized version of the Falcon 9 rocket.
The successful return of the first stage of the Falcon 9 has eclipsed all these events.
In a sense, this mission marked the beginning of a new cosmic era. The promise of reusable launch vehicles began to acquire force, which is important for broadening access to space. The founder of SpaceX has announced that it will build the Falcon 9 rocket cost his company $ 60 million. The fuel only costs $ 200,000. Thus, it is possible to reduce the cost of space flight 10 or even 100 times.
Now the company needs to demonstrate that she would be able to fix it rocket stage with little expense, and then again to start it. NASA’s space shuttles were reusable, but required an army of staff who served them. SpaceX needs to demonstrate that they can do this effectively and constantly. However, a successful night landing was, undoubtedly, the most difficult stage.
“It makes you think about how to do business, says Eric Stallmer, President of the Federation of commercial space flights, a supporter of commercial human flight into space. Is the final hell. Is there a better way to make a space flight? It will appear if — and when — we can use rocket again. Now we struck out “if” and “when”. The rocket industry is changing”.
Musk has been at the forefront of companies expanding the boundaries re-use, because even NASA has gone in the opposite direction with its new rocket the Space Launch Syste. This missile is fully disposable, including its four engines, RS-25. These same engines were re-used after each flight of the space Shuttle.
Starting SpaceX, Musk has made it clear that his ultimate goal is to build a colony on Mars, thereby ensuring the survival of the human race if the Earth happens for some extinction. “This is an important step on the way to being able to create a city on Mars, he said tonight. Mnogorazovogo is important for the Martian colony, because with disposable rockets any kind of development of Mars would be prohibitively expensive. — All for the sake of it”.
The SpaceX achievement followed the successful landing of the spacecraft New Shepard Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos. “Welcome to the club,” tweeted the founder of the company soon after the flight, SpaceX.
However, it is worth noting that the night flight of the Falcon 9 rocket proceeded in two times higher than the flight apparatus New Shepard, and double speed, approximately Mach 7.5. It’s not just falling to the Ground after a vertical run — no, Falcon 9 flew from the coast for hundreds of miles, then came back and landed. By this, she became the first orbital rocket in history, which managed to land successfully, and probably it will be followed by many others.