For the first time Friday, the California company SpaceX has managed to land gently on the first floor of its Falcon 9 rocket on a barge floating in the Atlantic Ocean. The landing of the craft 70 meters high took place less than ten minutes after takeoff. The launcher propelled Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) before descending to land on a small barge at sea. “The first floor is raised and of course we love,” he wrote on Twitter Elon Musk, founder and owner of SpaceX.
SpaceX already reached in December to ask the first stage of Falcon 9 on land in Florida after a launch, and at the first attempt. The California company is demonstrating its ability to recover this part of the launcher in the back doing either on an offshore platform or on land. Get the first floor of his rockets will allow SpaceX, if she can do it regularly, to make substantial savings in the future.
Refuel the International Space Station
The company had tried five times to land his pitcher on a barge at sea, but without success so far. This double success could potentially upset the satellite launch market, dominated in particular by Arianespace. Another billionaire Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and company Blue Origin, was the first last year to land her rocket “New Shepard” after a suborbital flight deemed less difficult by the experts. He repeated the feat three times, including last Sunday.
The Dragon capsule is in turn placed in orbit without problems Friday after separating from the second stage Falcon 9 and before deploying its two solar antennas. She then began her journey to join early Sunday the International Space Station. It must deliver them 3.1 tons of supplies, scientific equipment and an inflatable space module.
No comments:
Post a Comment