SpaceX's reusable rocket jumps to new heights, terrorizes livestock.

For those not familiar with SpaceX, it is a private aerospace company founded by PayPal founder Elon Musk in 2002 after he got sick of putting up with the shit the Russian government was making him go through to buy a couple of decommissioned ICBMs with the intent of launching greenhouses to Mars as an inspiration to mankind. No, really, that's what happened; he got through negotiations and they pulled a bait-and-switch, telling him that the two rockets he wanted would be $25 Million each, not for both, and he took his ball made of hundreds of millions of dollar bills and went home. Realizing that the efficiency of building rockets could be greatly improved, he designed the company to take raw materials in one end and spit out rockets on the other. It was a bit of a rough start, which is a nice way of saying "the first three didn't work." The fourth and fifth worked, and it was all uphill from there.

In May, SpaceX successfully completed the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Demonstration 2+ mission in which a Falcon 9 rocket delivered a Dragon capsule with a small load of cargo to the International Space Station and returned cargo safely to Earth. This completed the testing and SpaceX will launch regular resupply missions beginning early next year, taking over the task previously carried out by the Space Shuttle.

What's next for SpaceX? A whole bunch of commercial contracts, government contracts, and getting the Dragon capsule certified to carry crew. There's also the Falcon Heavy, which is basically three Falcon 9 rockets bolted together to lift heavy payloads into low earth orbit and beyond, and has already been contracted for several launches.

Looking beyond the immediate future, SpaceX is currently testing the Grasshopper demonstration vehicle. Over the past few months, it has been running tests of vertical takeoff/vertical landing capability with the end goal of developing a fully reusable rocket whose components return to the launch site after use and can be quickly serviced and launched again within a day. This is a huge step forward because the cheapest part of a rocket is the fuel, accounting for maybe 3% of the cost. Using a bit more to bring the rocket back intact saves the cost of materials and labor to build each rocket, plus eliminates the need for sea-based recovery.

Here's the promo video for the reusable rocket

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWFFiubtC3c


The first stage flips over, turns around, and heads back after second stage separation. The second stage inserts the payload into the target orbit and although it's not shown in detail, I assume it will orbit once around the earth in low earth orbit and "catch up" to the launch site, or coast behind a payload being placed into a transfer orbit and burn at apogee to put it on a return trajectory. The second stage will most likely use the same heat shield that has been used on the bottom of the Dragon capsule. If the payload is the Dragon capsule, it will deorbit and reenter as it has in previous flights, but will carry some extra fuel to allow it to land at the launch site instead of splashing down.

The Grasshopper has made three test flights so far. The first, in September, was a very short hop to test all systems, and unfortunately is barely visible through all the smoke

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzXlUw2WhcE


In November, it made a second flight. It doesn't look too impressive without a sense of scale, but rockets are huge and it's jumping almost 20 feet, hovering momentarily, and landing softly

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-VjaBSSnqs


Last week, Grasshopper outdid itself with this test flight.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4PEXLODw9c

 

Getting into space is easy, you just go up. Orbiting, to paraphrase Douglas Adams, is a matter of missing the ground on the way back down.

You're right to be skeptical, after all it's a very new technology that's just entering testing now. I think the most optimistic estimate I would be willing to give is a fully reusable rocket launched with a commercial payload in 8-10 years if everything goes perfectly. Realistically, 15-20 years seems more likely.

 

and thus... automated space shipping was made!

 

For the record, I fully agree with the claim that SpaceX is front-loading R&D costs so that down the line Elon Musk can come out and say "the technology to get humans to Mars is here, let's do it."

 

Earlier this week, this awesome video taken by a camera mounted on a hexacopter, was released. Be sure to watch as the copter moves in for the descent and the the lens starts picking up specks of rocket exhaust.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZDkItO-0a4

 

That is amazing

 

moo


View: http://youtu.be/RHktxfeKEx8


If band this absolutely fascinating.

 

That's cause for a new thread title.

 

Crap, auto correct fucks me again. I find this absolutely fascinating.

carry on