SpaceX Takes A Step Closer To Mars. Lands Rocket Upright

The Falcon 9 rocket put 11 ORBCOMM satellites into orbit as planned in SpaceX’s first mission since they had a rocket unexpectedly explode just moments into an ISS resupply mission. The leftover booster is 15 stories tall.

Upon hearing the noise and seeing the smoke of the rocket landing back on the pad, Musk said he thought it was an explosion and the maneuver had failed catastrophically.

“No one has ever brought an orbital class booster back intact”.

What’s significant is that this was a useful mission, Musk noted, not merely a practice flight. The rebuilt rocket deployed 11 satellites to low-Earth orbit for ORBCOMM, and then landed upright on solid ground, using its engines to slow its descent and touch down gently on a landing pad that NASA has used for decades. The previous attempt in June had met with failure, as the rocket exploded two minutes after lifting off due to a strut breaking from the force of the rocket’s acceleration. “I can’t quite believe it”.

Musk says a Falcon 9 costs in the range of $16 million, but the fuel (mostly oxygen and a gas) costs only $200,000 per launch. The rocket made it to the drone ship, but landed hard.

Across the country, SpaceX employees jammed company headquarters in Hawthorne, California, anxiously awaiting success. The images with people and cars nearby really show how huge the Falcon 9 first stage is. Both times, the boosters hit the platform, but the rockets couldn’t stick the landing. SpaceX commentators called it “incredibly exciting” and were visibly moved by the feat. Musk said a viable reusable rocket could dramatically lower the cost of spaceflight, and make his goal of building a city on Mars actually achievable.

Blue Origin, founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, stuck a landing last month – but Musk pointed out that was a suborbital trip, the requirements for which are considerably different.

On SpaceX’s official explanation of the mission, it’s even noted that testing the landing capabilities is a secondary objective.

Those savings could be passed on to the companies hitching rides on those rockets, like those making weather and communications satellites – if it doesn’t cost too much to get the rockets up and running again.