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Falcon 9 first stage has successfully landed!

goldenpeach

By goldenpeach
in Science & Spaceflight

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goldenpeach

goldenpeach

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As the title say, the first stage has successfully landed in the atlantic ocean!

I don't a lot of details about that new apart a few details and what was said in the Facebook post on Facebook so I'll just copy/paste the post from Space X.

"Data upload from tracking plane shows first stage landing in Atlantic was good! Flight computers continued transmitting for 8 seconds after reaching the water. Stopped when booster went horizontal. Several boats enroute through heavy seas..."

Have a nice [insert what you think fit the best]!

By the way, for those who want to know it, the post was posted 60 minutes before I posted this thread.

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PTNLemay

PTNLemay

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@ golden

Cool, thanks. It's a bit confusing that their site tagged that bit of news with "MARCH 11, 2014" (off on the left side). But the article itself does indeed state it's for the April launch. So it seems legitimate.

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  • 2 weeks later...
R0cketC0der

R0cketC0der

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This is excellent news, but I believe that Skylon is Far Superior. (cost-wise)

Skylon is just a paper spaceplanes of which the only component that has been tested yet is the precooler - the falcon 9 however is a real rocket which has been flown several times and everything that is needed to make the first stage reusable is already tested, SpaceX just needs more experience with landing it.

Don't get me wrong, I really like skylon, but the space shuttle has shown how much difference there can be between paper and real life, especially for first-of-its-kind launch vehicles.

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Nuke

Nuke

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i wonder what the plan is for actually using this the way they intended, they need an island to use as a down range landing site. i guess the alternative is to try to set it down on a ship. that should be interesting.

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R0cketC0der

R0cketC0der

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i wonder what the plan is for actually using this the way they intended, they need an island to use as a down range landing site. i guess the alternative is to try to set it down on a ship. that should be interesting.

They will turn around and perform a short burn to return to a landing site which is close to the launche site.

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deadshot462

deadshot462

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Sort of related, Elon Musk posted this on Twitter:

Elon Musk @elonmusk · 10m

Cover drops on May 29. Actual flight design hardware of crew Dragon, not a mockup.

Exciting stuff. Hopefully the look of this capsule will stimulate Congress to choose to support Commercial Crew Program rather than buy Soyuz seats. Nothing against the Russians, but USA should have its own launch system for manned missions.

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Francesco

Francesco

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Sort of related, Elon Musk posted this on Twitter:

Elon Musk @elonmusk · 10m

Cover drops on May 29. Actual flight design hardware of crew Dragon, not a mockup.

Exciting stuff. Hopefully the look of this capsule will stimulate Congress to choose to support Commercial Crew Program rather than buy Soyuz seats. Nothing against the Russians, but USA should have its own launch system for manned missions.

Interesting, I thought Dragon 2 was simply an updated cargo version. So it's both, cargo and manned?

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nettcod

nettcod

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Not sure if I got this entirely right, but I think dragon 1 is the cargo version and dragon 2 is the crew version.

I thought they meant that Dragon 2 will be like the current one, but with Superdraco thrusters and landing legs that come out of the heat shield. The Superdracos would be used as a LES during launch (even for cargo missions. Cargo costs money), and after launch they would be used for maneuvering in orbit and then landing back at the launch site to be reused, just like the Falcon 9. Both crew and cargo missions would use the Dragon 2.

Note: This may not actually be true, it's just how I understood it.

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Francesco

Francesco

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I thought they meant that Dragon 2 will be like the current one, but with Superdraco thrusters and landing legs that come out of the heat shield. The Superdracos would be used as a LES during launch (even for cargo missions. Cargo costs money), and after launch they would be used for maneuvering in orbit and then landing back at the launch site to be reused, just like the Falcon 9. Both crew and cargo missions would use the Dragon 2.

Note: This may not actually be true, it's just how I understood it.

I don't know if Superdracos will be used for maneuvering, I think Dragon 2 will still have normal Draco thrusters.

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nettcod

nettcod

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I don't know if Superdracos will be used for maneuvering, I think Dragon 2 will still have normal Draco thrusters.

It will still have normal Draco thrusters for RCS, but I think they are just for steering and docking. I think that the Superdracos will be used to perform burns to change the Dragon's orbit, and for deorbit, which are what I mean by maneuvering. I'm not sure, though.

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deadshot462

deadshot462

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Alright SpaceX, time to step it up. JPL got some pretty decent HD descent imaging from Mars and you can't get a decent video from Earth?

Joking aside, looks like a successful test of the landing system. I believe Elon stated they would try to land a stage on the ground by the end of this year.

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