Reusability: The Key to Making Human Life Multi-Planetary

March 13, 2017 – 08:55 pm


-Elon Musk

SpaceX believes a fully and rapidly reusable rocket is the pivotal breakthrough needed to substantially reduce the cost of space access. The majority of the launch cost comes from building the rocket, which flies only once. Compare that to a commercial airliner – each new plane costs about the same as Falcon 9, but can fly multiple times per day, and conduct tens of thousands of flights over its lifetime. Following the commercial model, a rapidly reusable space launch vehicle could reduce the cost of traveling to space by a hundredfold.

While most rockets are designed to burn up on reentry, SpaceX rockets are designed not only to withstand reentry, but also to return to the launch pad or ocean landing site for a vertical landing. Through reusability testing during flight and on the ground in McGregor, Texas, SpaceX has made great strides toward this goal.

First Stage Flight Testing

In order to re-fly a Falcon 9 first stage, it must first return safely to Earth after delivering the second stage and payload to orbit. Current efforts are focused on reentering the first stage through Earth’s atmosphere and conducting precision landings – initially on an autonomous spaceport drone ship at sea, and eventually on land.

In 2014, SpaceX twice reentered a Falcon 9 first stage from space and landed it in the Atlantic Ocean. Using lessons learned from those attempts, in January 2015 SpaceX attempted a precision landing on the drone ship, nicknamed “Just Read the Instructions”. The rocket made it to the drone ship, but landed hard. SpaceX attempted a second precision landing the following month, this time over water, and the rocket impressively came within 10 meters of its target. Unfortunately, extreme weather prevented recovery.


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