Rocket Launch AND Landing

[RedSN]

Amazing stuff

The Monday night launch and rocket landing – December 21, 2015 – helps further the goal of bringing down the cost of space travel. It was the Falcon 9’s first launch in six months following a launch failure last June, and the first-ever upright landing of a rocket used to deploy satellites to space.

The upgraded 23-story-tall Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 8:29 p.m ET (0029 UTC on December 22). The Falcon 9’s second stage and payload separated from the first stage a little more than two minutes later, at an altitude of about 60 miles (100 km).

While the second stage fired its engine and headed to space, the first stage also relit its engines for the return to Earth.

The engine burn slowed the rocket’s descent from supersonic speed, as the main stage of the Falcon 9 returned to a landing site about six miles (10 km) from the launch pad.

[Old Fart]

Cool!

[Nsty04SVT]

That is amazing wow!

[RedSN]

The company's first two launch vehicles are the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets (a nod to Star Wars' Millennium Falcon)

I never heard of this guy until recently, but the more I read about him, the more fascinating it is.

Elon Musk (born June 28, 1971) is a South African-born Canadian-American business magnate, engineer, inventor and investor. He is the CEO and CTO of SpaceX, CEO and product architect of Tesla Motors, and chairman of SolarCity as well as co-chairman of OpenAI. He is the founder of SpaceX and a co-founder of Zip2, PayPal, and Tesla Motors.

[Biz]

Ever wonder what 400 rocket scientists look like when a rocket lands


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igEWYbnoHc4

[BackinBlack]

Ever wonder what 400 rocket scientists look like when a rocket lands


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igEWYbnoHc4

That was cool !

[RedSN]

SpaceX has successfully test-fired the new Raptor rocket engine that will launch the company's planned interplanetary spaceship, according to a series of tweets from the company's CEO, Elon Musk. The engine is being developed to help propel a powerful reusable rocket to Mars and beyond as part of SpaceX's Interplanetary Transport System.

New engine uses liquid methane.
Exciting time to be a rocket scientist.

[92redragtop]

I never heard of this guy until recently, but the more I read about him, the more fascinating it is.

You recently heard about him? Came to fame with Paypal. He also proposed building "tubes" that would transport people between cities like those that you shot documents through between floors inside buildings (before email).

[RedSN]

Bringing this back because SpaceX just re-launched a recovered Falcon-9 rocket yesterday.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/space...leap-1.3348301

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket recovered at sea from its maiden flight last year blasted off again from Florida on Thursday in the first successful launch of a recycled orbital-class booster, then capped the feat with another return landing on an ocean platform.

[RedSN]

At it again: he's now expected to launch his car into space.

When Falcon Heavy lifts off in 2018, it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two. With the ability to lift into orbit nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lb)---a mass greater than a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel--Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost. Falcon Heavy draws upon the proven heritage and reliability of Falcon 9.

Its first stage is composed of three Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, delivered more payload to orbit. Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars.