SpaceX pulled it off!
I posted about this earlier today, if you want details about the payload and the mission. The exciting part is that this is the first time SpaceX has tried to fly a booster they’d launched before and successfully recovered, and it was amazing. (I’ve grown up with the space age, and I find it incredible we can now watch so much of a launch in real time.)
They launched right as the launch window opened — no holds or delays that I’m aware of. The Falcon-9 first stage performed flawlessly on its second flight to space; the second stage separated, lit up, and took the payload to Low Earth Orbit before shutting down for a few minutes and then boosted into a transfer orbit to Geostationary altitude. Meanwhile, the first stage made a successful re-entry burn, AND a soft landing on the recovery barge “Of Course I Still Love You” for its second successful landing. They didn’t get live video of the landing — the vibration from the rocket blast as it descends causes the satellite link to be lost — but then the picture cleared to show the booster standing near dead center. There will probably be video from the support ship at some point.
I’ve grabbed some screen caps of the launch for those who missed the streaming video and may not have the bandwidth/time to watch the video at SpaceX and on Youtube. (Video down below the screen caps)
Somewhere over Africa the second stage lit up again
to put the payload into a transfer orbit on its way to Geostationary orbit,
shut down, and the payload separated successfully to complete the trip on its own.
The video is below. SpaceX updated the video since I first posted this. There’s about 11 minutes of filler before coverage starts with a lot of background information and some explanations of today’s launch. The actual countdown and launch takes place at 30 minutes in — then it’s near continuous coverage, with a pause at around 41 minutes with action picking up again at around 55 minutes for the insertion into Geostationary Orbit.
You can watch the entire video below or go to SpaceX. It looks like they’ve edited out some of the periods when nothing much was happening, and may have made a few other changes. It’s still amazing!
Everyone at SpaceX must be hoarse by now after all the cheering they did today — but they’ve got a lot to cheer about. The only remaining challenge is for the satellite to successfully reach its final parking slot in Geostationary Orbit, and check out before going operational.
This is a pretty impressive display of technology. The Space Shuttles flew repeated missions, the solid fuel boosters were reused, but this is the first purely commercial effort to reuse a complex assembly of liquid fuel engines that I’m aware of.
The ability of the Falcon 9 systems to execute the maneuvers they did, including several engine starts and shut downs, bring the first stage down to a precise landing target… it’s a new ball game now. When the Dragon capsule and Falcon launch family is finally man-rated for human spaceflight, SpaceX will be able to offer a full spectrum of space services. The challenge will be how consistently they can pull this off.
Fabulous job today, people!