spaceX "makes aerospace history", launches satellite & lands with reused rocket

[Decepticon]

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/29/521941656/launch-land-launch-spacex-tries-reusing-its-rocket

The most expensive part of doing business in outer space is getting there. The private space flight company SpaceX thinks it can change all that, and Thursday's successful reuse of a rocket was a big test of its business model.

SpaceX launched a communications satellite from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida using a rocket stage that had already been to space and back. SpaceX is betting that this kind of recycling will lower its costs and revolutionize space flight.

The rocket landed vertically on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean a few minutes after the launch.

http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/30/15117096/spacex-launch-reusable-rocket-success-falcon-9-landing

After more than two years of landing its rockets after launch, SpaceX finally sent one of its used Falcon 9s back into space. The rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, this evening, sending a communications satellite into orbit, and then landed on one of SpaceX’s drone ships floating in the Atlantic Ocean. It was round two for this particular rocket, which already launched and landed during a mission in April of last year. But the Falcon 9’s relaunch marks the first time an orbital rocket has launched to space for a second time.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk appeared on the company’s live stream shortly after the landing and spoke about the accomplishment. “It means you can fly and refly an orbital class booster, which is the most expensive part of the rocket. This is going to be, ultimately, a huge revolution in spaceflight,” he said.

This evening’s mission was a critical milestone for SpaceX, which has been working to make its rockets partially reusable since as early as 2011. Up until now, practically all orbital rockets have been expendable, so they’re basically thrown away once they launch into space. That means an entirely new rocket — which can cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars to make — has to be built for each mission to orbit. SpaceX’s strategy has been to land its rockets after launch in an effort to fly them again and again. That way the company can partially save on manufacturing costs for each mission.

in summary, based spaceX launched a rocket into space and then landed it onto a boat in the middle of the ocean. today, they took the same rocket, launched it into space a second time with a payload, and and then landed it successfully again, bringing us even closer if not straight to reusable space flight. in turn, this could also cut the cost of flying our stuff into space greatly, which is pretty cool

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[Refticus]

oh look
actually good news for once this year

[Conan]

24 hour reflights?? thats forgetin insane holy stuff

[Decepticon]

24 hour reflights?? thats forgetin insane holy stuff

elon musk is a force of nature

[Conan]

elon musk is god

if he wills it it becomes reality

i dont even know how to put that goal into perspective
its like wanting to repair an undrivable car with an unknown number of issues in the span of 30 minutes

idk that doesnt really work either hmm

[Daswiruch]

sick

[Magus]

Funny how sometimes SpaceX seems the least insane of his ideas given their success.

[Decepticon]

i dont even know how to put that goal into perspective
its like wanting to repair an undrivable car with an unknown number of issues in the span of 30 minutes

idk that doesnt really work either hmm

it's not just that either, he's simultaneously giving australia the equivalent to a "we'll do it in 90 days or its free" deal worth something like $25000000 and bringing a car to mass production

[Juncoph]

i don't doubt it being possible

if you have a well drilled engineering team that's large enough, everyone can divide a major task into a series of simultaneously completed smaller tasks thus cutting down refurb time

that or they go the american tank design way and they refurbish it by just replacing all the complex stuff in module swaps rather than taking the time to find damage in exact components

it's really a matter of discipline and infrastructure, of which i'm p sure spaceX has both

[Conan]

i don't doubt it being possible

if you have a well drilled engineering team that's large enough, everyone can divide a major task into a series of simultaneously completed smaller tasks thus cutting down refurb time

that or they go the american tank design way and they refurbish it by just replacing all the complex stuff in module swaps rather than taking the time to find damage in exact components

it's really a matter of discipline and infrastructure, of which i'm p sure spaceX has both

yeah ik but its just like
imagining a rocket being launched one day

then 3 days later its launched again


like something so massive and complex and put under so much strain refurbished in just 24 hours with a 99.99% reliability (or something like that since the cost of even one rocket loving up would be massive in terms of public image, safety, and raw cost)

[Tactical Nuke]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BPv0VZcvm4Q

dunno if this is the right video but thunderf00t has made videos on this topic

needless to say that he's not a fan of Elon Musk

[Nonnel]

that's incredible

[phflack]

i think it might make sense to not rush a rocket, but instead have like 2-4 rockets and then that way there's more uptime
and i'm guessing each rocket can be inspected like an assembly line, same people checking the same bits each time instead of having the check the whole rocket (since there'll be like 3 grounded being approved/prepped for next launch and 1 in the air)

[SimpleFish]

Saw this earlier, loving amazing.

[NotBomberguy]

stuff yeah brother