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More insanely cool SpaceX rocket porn
Jul. 8th, 2013 03:07 pmA few months ago they did something very hard by taking a full sized first stage of a Falcon 9 up to 70 odd metres and having it hover there before landing it. This week they took it up to 325m and had it hover and then land again.
There was some discussion about who was videoing this and it turns out they're using a drone helicopter, which is also cool.
Seriously, this is insanely, mind buggeringly hard, very very very very hard, especially with something this size.
I'd be interested in seeing the rest of the test plan. They'll need a few more up/down flights, probably with some lateral direction control to prove they can control it before the really hard stuff of getting it high enough to demonstrate an engine restart while the vehicle is falling and then a controlled landing - which is going to be the key piece to operating this as a first stage recovery service.
If they can do this and the airframe is still ok for launch this could clip an entire order of magnitude off launch costs per kilo, which is a very big thing indeed. Space access will still be obscenely expensive but it won't be insanely pricey anymore.
There was some discussion about who was videoing this and it turns out they're using a drone helicopter, which is also cool.
Seriously, this is insanely, mind buggeringly hard, very very very very hard, especially with something this size.
I'd be interested in seeing the rest of the test plan. They'll need a few more up/down flights, probably with some lateral direction control to prove they can control it before the really hard stuff of getting it high enough to demonstrate an engine restart while the vehicle is falling and then a controlled landing - which is going to be the key piece to operating this as a first stage recovery service.
If they can do this and the airframe is still ok for launch this could clip an entire order of magnitude off launch costs per kilo, which is a very big thing indeed. Space access will still be obscenely expensive but it won't be insanely pricey anymore.
