the fifth attempt to recover the main floor of the Falcon 9 on a barge at sea has been good. It took place on April 8, 2016. © SpaceX
SpaceX finally recovers the main floor of the Falcon 9 sea - Photo 1
SpaceX resumed flights to the international Space Station (ISS). Dragon capsule arrived there on Sunday with on board 3,175 tons of food and cargo and the Beam inflatable module of 1,413 tons, manufactured by the company Bigelow. She was docked to the orbital complex on the Harmony module. Six spacecraft are therefore connected to the ISS, for only the second time in its history. There are, in addition to the Dragon capsule, two Soyuz, Progress and the two cargo Cygnus – it was developed by the American company Orbital ATK and arrived March 26; its purpose is also to deliver supplies and scientific equipment.
However, what caught the most attention is not sending the Dragon capsule but successful recovery on a barge at sea, the main floor of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle after five attempts. SpaceX was successful in recovering intact this stage in December, but it landed on the mainland.
The company founder, Elon Musk (co-founder of PayPal and Tesla Motors), announced on Sunday successful well before take-off of the launcher. He had indeed explained that all the conditions were right to recover, given a significant additional performance and favorable weather conditions.
First landing and successful recovery of the main stage of the Falcon 9 SpaceX on a barge in the middle Wed © SpaceX
Two thirty minutes after taking off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the main floor is separated from the upper stage of the Falcon 9. then, after a difficult turning maneuver a hundred kilometers altitude, he began his descent and braking to come to land smoothly, six minutes later, the barge named of Course I Still Love you (meaning “Of course I still love you”).
This latest success demonstrates that SpaceX control technology controlled return to his floor. That said, while the gamble of Elon Musk remains to show that the reusability of this stage and its new engine is economically viable, which is not yet won. Indeed, it is still necessary that the cost of rehabilitation of the stage (including the verification and certification of new engines) and its use for another launch are lower than those of two different pitches.
In the course of the year, SpaceX will reuse one of the floors recovered during a commercial launch. It will be proposed at a very attractive price. SES, the Luxembourg satellite operator, is interested to be the first customer of this launch will open a new era of access to space.
As for Arianespace, reusability is not in the agenda. Technically, Airbus Defence and Space, which builds and develops Ariane 5 Ariane 6 is capable. However, each launch of an Ariane 5 launcher is used to its maximum capacity; there is no sufficient performance to bring surplus ground the main floor. This is not the case of the Falcon 9 uses much of its propellant to bring its ground floor. A policy that restricts the mass of the payload carried by the pitcher and restricted payload of two to three tons.
The economic interest to make partially reusable Falcon 9 will be laughable but the placing on the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle market is in turn an infinitely more credible proposal. Reusable version, three-stage launcher will be capable of carrying satellites more than 5 tons and compete Arianespace in the heart of its market.
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