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Another small step for man..........................! I am not sure that tall vertical rockets are "best practice" vehicles for recovery landings, but if it can be done, then it is good that SpaceX has succeeded in doing it.
Published December 21, 2015 Associated Press
SpaceX sent a Falcon rocket soaring toward orbit Monday night with 11 small satellites, its first mission since an accident last summer. Then in an even more amazing feat, it landed the 15-story leftover booster back on Earth safely.
It was the first time an unmanned rocket returned to land vertically at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and represented a tremendous success for SpaceX. The company led by billionaire Elon Musk is striving for reusability to drive launch costs down and open up space to more people.
SpaceX employees broke into cheers and chants, some of them jumping up and down, following the smooth touchdown nine minutes after liftoff. Previous landing attempts ended in fiery blasts, but those aimed for an ocean platform.
"The Falcon has landed," SpaceX TV commentators announced.
The top officer at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Brig. Gen. Wayne Monteith, noted that the returning booster "placed the exclamation mark on 2015."
"This was a first for us at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and I can't even begin to describe the excitement the team feels right now having been a part of this historic first-stage rocket landing," Monteith said in a statement.
More: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/12/21/spacex-launches-rocket-6-months-after-accident-then-lands.html?intcmp=hpbt1
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This is a short video of the actual landing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B6oiLNyKKI
And if you would like to see the entire launch/recovery video of this SpaceX event", that video is on this page link - it is about 45 minutes in length: http://www.spacex.com/webcast/
Quote from: rdunk on December 22, 2015, 03:30:43 PM
Another small step for man..........................! I am not sure that tall vertical rockets are "best practice" vehicles for recovery landings, but if it can be done, then it is good that SpaceX has succeeded in doing it.
They did even better and successfully landed its rocket on a floating drone ship for the first time couple months ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPGUQySBikQ
Elon Musk! what can we say?...
QuoteWhatever skeptics have said can't be done, Elon has gone out and made real. Remember in the 1990s, when we would call strangers and give them our credit-card numbers? Elon dreamed up a little thing called PayPal. His Tesla Motors and SolarCity companies are making a clean, renewable-energy future a reality...his SpaceX [is] reopening space for exploration...it's a paradox that Elon is working to improve our planet at the same time he's building spacecraft to help us leave it.
http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html (http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html)
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