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SpaceX Launched and Landed Another Used Falcon 9 Rocket, Marking Its Record-Tying 18th Launch of the Year (theverge.com)
SpaceX has successfully sent up a communications satellite for the country of Qatar, marking the aerospace company's 18th mission in 2018, which ties the company's record in 2017 for the most launches done in a year. Since the company has several more missions planned for this year, it's very likely that the company will set a new all-time high soon. The Verge reports: For this mission, SpaceX is employing another one of its used rockets, a Falcon 9 booster that launched the Telstar 19 VANTAGE satellite in July. After that mission, the rocket landed on one of SpaceX's autonomous drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean, and the company hopes to pull off the same feat following today's launch. If successful, this particular Falcon 9 booster could be capable of flying a third time in the near future.
The payload is the Es'hail-2 satellite, which is meant to provide communications services to the Middle East and North Africa. It's primarily meant to be used for government and commercial purposes, however, amateur radio operators can also use this satellite. Es'hail-2 has two transponders on board that can connect to amateur radios from South America to Asia. It's not the only satellite with this capability, but Es'hail-2 is going to a particularly high orbit 22,000 miles up. That will make it the first satellite at this altitude to link amateur radios from Brazil to India. SpaceX managed to successfully deploy the Es'hail-2 satellite into orbit "32 minutes after takeoff," The Verge reports in an update. "The company also landed its Falcon 9 rocket on one of its drone ships following liftoff, bringing its total number of successful booster landings to 31." You can watch the full launch here.
The payload is the Es'hail-2 satellite, which is meant to provide communications services to the Middle East and North Africa. It's primarily meant to be used for government and commercial purposes, however, amateur radio operators can also use this satellite. Es'hail-2 has two transponders on board that can connect to amateur radios from South America to Asia. It's not the only satellite with this capability, but Es'hail-2 is going to a particularly high orbit 22,000 miles up. That will make it the first satellite at this altitude to link amateur radios from Brazil to India. SpaceX managed to successfully deploy the Es'hail-2 satellite into orbit "32 minutes after takeoff," The Verge reports in an update. "The company also landed its Falcon 9 rocket on one of its drone ships following liftoff, bringing its total number of successful booster landings to 31." You can watch the full launch here.
"Demonstrated" is the right word. I suppose you're referring to the Space Shuttle.
For starters, rocket reuse is not a goal in itself, it is a means by which launch costs can potentially be lowered. The Space Shuttle was a reusable launch system, but launches were pretty expensive (in terms of kg to orbit), and reusing the SRBs did very, very little to bring those costs down. In contrast, using refurbished Falcon 9 first stages turns out to be a real cost saver. The amazing part is not just the technology (especially landing those stages on land or barges, which is where the cost savings come in), but the economics as well. If SpaceX meet their upcoming development goals, they are going to be a game changer.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Hate to break it to you guys, but reusable rockets were demonstrated over 25 years ago. Yeah, I know, amazing stuff.
A solid-fuel booster that splashes down in seawater so it takes months of replacing corroded parts to ready it for a new duty cycle is not "reusable" in any modern sense.
Not really. We had a few things that hovered a few hundred feet over concrete, like DC-X and Rotary Rocket and a more recent NASA experimental lander. The only "reusable" rocket to make orbit was the Space Shuttle, and that was so reusable that refurbishment cost more than an expendable Falcon Heavy launch. In fact the cost per launch of the Space Shuttle was about 5 times what a reusable Falcon Heavy launch would cost for a civilian satellite and about 3 times what government launches cost (government wants a lot more qualification and paperwork).
So, SpaceX Falcon 9 is the first practical reusable first stage, which is a big deal because the second stage only has 1 engine, vs. 9, and supposedly Dragon is somewhat reusable, although proof that it costs less to recycle than build anew is rather thin so far.
Bruce Perens.
How does one company launching and running 7000+ satellites grab you? In rockets that they can fly again and again basically just by refueling like a car?
That sounds pretty space-age to me.
I can see you harumph-ing all the way past multiple Mars landings and human colonies...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
What's this "we" stuff? I'd honestly be surprised if you could tie your shoes ...
The boosters aren't the main cost saving part - the theory with the Space Shuttle was you'd be able to land the Shuttle orbiter part and basically just strap it to a new tank and booster set. If that had worked launch costs would have been very low, but the orbiter parts weren't strong enough so the thing had to be stripped down and rebuilt for every launch.
Frankly, the only raving cultist I can spot here is anti Musk. Seems to me he's more relevant to your life than you are insinuating he is to ours.
... will be the first time a SpaceX booster is launched for the 3rd time. Until now, no booster has flown more than twice. Booster B1046 is the first block 5 booster.
Ths booster was previously used on May 11 to launch the Bangabandhu-1 satellite, and again on August 7th to launch Telkom-4 (both launches from Florida). On Monday it will be launched from Vandenberg in California, launching 114 small satellites into sun-synchronous orbit.
The booster will land on the drone ship (Just Read The Instructions) in the Pacific.