Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Falcon 9 Rocket Booster Descend into the Ocean for its “Soft” Landing

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: July 23, 2014 9:27:34 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Falcon 9 Rocket Booster Descend into the Ocean for its "Soft" Landing

July 22, 2014
SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage
Following last week's successful launch of six ORBCOMM satellites, the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage reentered Earth's atmosphere and soft landed in the Atlantic Ocean. This test confirms that the Falcon 9 booster is able consistently to reenter from space at hypersonic velocity, restart main engines twice, deploy landing legs and touch down at near zero velocity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CQnR5fhCXkQ
After landing, the vehicle tipped sideways as planned to its final water safing state in a nearly horizontal position. The water impact caused loss of hull integrity, but we received all the necessary data to achieve a successful landing on a future flight. Going forward, we are taking steps to minimize the build up of ice and spots on the camera housing in order to gather improved video on future launches.
At this point, we are highly confident of being able to land successfully on a floating launch pad or back at the launch site and refly the rocket with no required refurbishment. However, our next couple launches are for very high velocity geostationary satellite missions, which don't allow enough residual propellant for landing. In the longer term, missions like that will fly on Falcon Heavy, but until then Falcon 9 will need to fly in expendable mode.
We will attempt our next water landing on flight 13 of Falcon 9, but with a low probability of success. Flights 14 and 15 will attempt to land on a solid surface with an improved probability of success.

© 2014 Space Exploration Technologies Corp

Watch the Falcon 9 Rocket Booster Descend into the Ocean for its "Soft" Landing
by Nancy Atkinson on July 22, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CQnR5fhCXkQ

SpaceX today released video from the Falcon 9 first stage flyback and landing video from the July 14 launch of six ORBCOMM advanced telecommunications satellites. This was a test of the reusability of the Falcon 9′s first stage and its flyback and landing system. It splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean, and SpaceX called it a "soft" landing, even though the booster did not survive the splashdown. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted on July 14 that the rocket booster reentry, landing burn and leg deployment worked well, but the hull of the first stage "lost integrity right after splashdown (aka kaboom)." He later reported that detailed review of rocket telemetry showed the booster took a "body slam, maybe from a self-generated wave."
SpaceX today said last week's test "confirms that the Falcon 9 booster is able consistently to reenter from space at hypersonic velocity, restart main engines twice, deploy landing legs and touch down at near zero velocity."

Screenshot from the SpaceX webcast of the Falcon 9 launch on July 14, 2013.
This video is of much higher quality than the video from the first soft landing test in the ocean, back in April of this year following the launch of the CRS-3 mission for the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station.
Even though the booster has not been recoverable from either test (the April test saw too rough of seas to get the booster) SpaceX said that they received all the necessary data "to achieve a successful landing on a future flight. Going forward, we are taking steps to minimize the build up of ice and spots on the camera housing in order to gather improved video on future launches.
The booster tipping over is the nominal procedure (in water), but the booster did touch down in a vertical position; additionally, as seen in the video, the landing legs deployed perfectly, and the flyback boosters performed flawlessly.
"At this point, we are highly confident of being able to land successfully on a floating launch pad or back at the launch site and refly the rocket with no required refurbishment," SpaceX said in today's press release. "However, our next couple launches are for very high velocity geostationary satellite missions, which don't allow enough residual propellant for landing. In the longer term, missions like that will fly on Falcon Heavy, but until then Falcon 9 will need to fly in expendable mode."
The next attempt for a our next water landing will be on Falcon 9′s thirteenth flight, a launch to the ISS for the fourth resupply mission, but they indicated the test would have a "low probability of success." That flight is currently scheduled for no earlier than September 12, 2014. The next big challenge comes in flights 14 (another ORBCOMM satellite launch) and 15 (Turkmen satellite), where the booster will attempt to land on a solid surface. Those flights are currently scheduled for NET October and November of 2014.

Video shows Falcon 9's rocket-assisted splashdown
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: July 23, 2014
SpaceX released a video clip Tuesday showing the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket descending back to Earth for a controlled, low-speed splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Cape Canaveral following launch last week.
The company says the rocket-assisted touchdown is the second consecutive time it has achieved a soft landing of the 12-foot-diameter first stage after a launch, putting SpaceX closer to returning a first stage to a landing pad near Cape Canaveral.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CQnR5fhCXkQ
A camera mounted on the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage recorded these views of its descent into the Atlantic Ocean following a July 14 launch from Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX

The July 14 launch with six Orbcomm communications satellites was the first time video from an on-board camera clearly showed key milestones in the descent, such as two ignitions of a subset of the first stage's Merlin 1D engines to slow down the rocket and guide it to the recovery zone. The video also shows the rocket's four carbon fiber and aluminum honeycomb landing legs deploying moments before falling into ocean.
A similar video of the first stage's descent during a Falcon 9 launch in April was obscured by a poor live communications link.
The rocket's engines are designed to adjust their throttle settings to achieve a gentle splashdown.
SpaceX plans to make the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage reusable in a bid to reduce the costs of launches.
"This test confirms that the Falcon 9 booster is able consistently to re-enter from space at hypersonic velocity, restart main engines twice, deploy landing legs and touch down at near zero velocity," SpaceX said in a statement accompanying the video release.
Recovery crews in the Atlantic Ocean were ready to retrieve the rocket stage after splashdown, but SpaceX says the booster broke apart moments after splashdown.
"After landing, the vehicle tipped sideways as planned to its final water safing state in a nearly horizontal position," SpaceX said. "The water impact caused loss of hull integrity, but we received all the necessary data to achieve a successful landing on a future flight."
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk called the loss of hull integrity a "kaboom" in a tweet after the launch. He later posted that a data review indicated the stage's structural break-up was caused by a "body slam, maybe from a self-generated wave."
The Falcon 9 rocket's performance limitations will keep engineers from attempting ocean landings on the launcher's next two missions, which are slated to carry the AsiaSat 8 and AsiaSat 6 telecom satellites into geostationary transfer orbit, a high-altitude orbit stretching up to 22,300 miles above Earth.
Built by Space Systems/Loral, both satellites for Hong Kong-based AsiaSat weigh more than 3 metric tons at launch.
The first launch with AsiaSat 8 is set for Aug. 4.
"At this point, we are highly confident of being able to land successfully on a floating launch pad or back at the launch site and refly the rocket with no required refurbishment," SpaceX said. "However, our next couple launches are for very high velocity geostationary satellite missions, which don't allow enough residual propellant for landing. In the longer term, missions like that will fly on Falcon Heavy, but until then Falcon 9 will need to fly in expendable mode."
SpaceX's first two launches to geostationary transfer orbit -- with the SES 8 and Thaicom 6 satellites in December and January -- also did not include first stage landing attempts.
Falcon 9 launches for Orbcomm, which operates its satellites in low Earth orbit about 400 miles up, and SpaceX's resupply missions to the International Space Station do not take up all of the rocket's lift capacity, leaving leftover fuel for experimental maneuvers after the first stage's main job is done.
SpaceX said the next water landing attempt will be on the 13th flight of the Falcon 9, which is scheduled for launch as soon as Sept. 12 with a Dragon cargo capsule for the space station.
Officials are targeting the following two Falcon 9 flights this fall as the first missions to try a landing on a solid surface.

© 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.

Amazing SpaceX Reusable Rocket Test Caught on Video
By Mike Wall, Senior Writer | July 22, 2014 04:28pm ET

A stunning new video shows the first stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket making a soft ocean splashdown as planned after its launch earlier this month.
The spectacular new SpaceX video, which the company released today (July 22), reveals the rocket stage returning to Earth in a controlled fashion after helping launch six commercial satellites from Florida on July 14. Many key moments are plainly visible, including the deployment of the stage's landing legs and its submersion in the Atlantic Ocean.
Even though the booster didn't survive the landing entirely intact, SpaceX considers the reusability test a big success. [The Rockets and Spaceships of SpaceX (Photos)]
"This test confirms that the Falcon 9 booster is able consistently to reenter from space at hypersonic velocity, restart main engines twice, deploy landing legs and touch down at near zero velocity," SpaceX representatives wrote in an update today about the video, which was recorded by the stage's onboard camera.
A stilll from a video shows a Falcon 9 rocket first stage soft landing in the Atlantic Ocean on July 14, 2014.
Credit: SpaceX (via YouTube as SpaceX)
View full size image
"After landing, the vehicle tipped sideways as planned to its final water safing state in a nearly horizontal position," they added. "The water impact caused loss of hull integrity, but we received all the necessary data to achieve a successful landing on a future flight."
Developing fully and rapidly reusable rockets is a key priority for California-based SpaceX and Elon Musk, the company's billionaire founder and CEO. Musk has said reusable launch systems could slash the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100, potentially making Mars colonies and other lofty goals economically feasible.
The company has therefore put a lot of time and effort into testing reusable rockets. Over the past few years, for example, SpaceX conducted increasingly complicated flights of its prototype Grasshopper rocket from a facility in Texas. And the company has now attempted three first-stage returns during Falcon 9 launches.
The first of these Falcon 9 attempts, which came in September 2013, was a partial success. Engineers managed to re-light the first stage's engines twice, but it ultimately hit the water hard. The second test, which occurred in April of this year during the launch of SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station for NASA, was a substantial improvement; the Falcon 9 stage made a soft landing, though rough seas broke it apart before a recovery boat could get to the site, SpaceX representatives said.
SpaceX will try another first-stage ocean splashdown on Flight 13 of the Falcon 9, company representatives said. That flight — another cargo mission to the orbiting lab for NASA — is currently scheduled for Sept. 12. The next two Falcon 9 missions after that will feature attempts to bring the first stage down to Earth softly on land.
"At this point, we are highly confident of being able to land successfully on a floating launch pad or back at the launch site and refly the rocket with no required refurbishment," SpaceX representatives wrote in today's update.

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