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SpaceX Lands the 13th Falcon 9 Rocket of the Year In Flames (theverge.com)
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida this afternoon and, while the rocket successfully delivered the Koreasat-5A to its designated orbit, it managed to catch fire after landing on one of SpaceX's autonomous barges. The Verge reports: That rocket's mission [was] to send a satellite known as Koreasat-5A into space, where it will hang above Earth for 15 years while providing communications bandwidth for Korea and Southern Asia. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket successfully delivered Koreasat-5A to its designated orbit, marking the the company's 16th successful mission of the year -- twice the number of successful missions in 2016. Shortly after liftoff, the first stage of the rocket returned to Earth and landed (flamboyantly) in the Atlantic Ocean on one of SpaceX's autonomous barges. (The fires eventually went out.) It was the 13th successful landing of a Falcon 9 rocket this year, the 15th in a row, and the 19th overall.
They have used refurbished rockets at least twice this year. Launched a total of 16 and landed 13. Three had too heavy of a payload to have enough fuel to land, so it was not attempted.
NASA launched the Moon Landers after landing them on the Moon.
The LEM wasn't an orbital-class booster (as far as Earth is concerned), and it wasn't re-used (it was essentially staging, since the descent stage was left behind).
Not the same rocket motors.
Decent and ascent were different .
NASA has now approved use of flight-proven boosters, which is huge for SpaceX.
The re-use rate in 2017 will be about 25%. SpaceX is aiming for 50% in 2018, and will pivot to block-5 which will further decrease work required during booster turnaround.
Exciting times... looking like rocket reuse is finally a thing!
https://www.space.com/22391-re... the nasa DC-X did the first boost-hover-land cycle in 1993. Nasa proved it could be done but tech was not advanced enough to take it further.