Musk has previously said he believes reusing rockets – which cost as much as a commercial airplane – could reduce the cost of access to space by a factor of 100.
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SpaceX will be attempting another rocket landing this weekend, but the attempt will take place on one of their drone ships adrift offshore in the Pacific as opposed to on land, like the December touch down. The drill included a countdown and ignition of the Falcon 9’s Merlin 1D engines.
SpaceX is using up existing stock of its old Falcon 9 rocket in its upcoming launch out of California. 1 rocket in September 2013 carrying the Cassiope satellite.
Despite that success, the company has failed on three separate occasions when looking to return its rockets to an ocean based platform on one of its autonomous droneships.
The goal is to bring down the cost of rocket launches and make space flight more affordable and sustainable in the years to come. The second one did land, but slightly too hard. According to Space X CEO and founder, Elon Musk, it’s because high-velocity landings will still need to be conducted over the ocean for safety reasons.
The barge – measuring 150 feet by 250 feet – SpaceX will use is called “Just Read the Instructions”.
The Falcon 9 SpaceX that returned to Earth last month has been inspected, and Musk said it is free of damage and capable of firing again.
Today SpaceX released slick new footage of that launch and landing.
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If everything goes as planned, SpaceX will send NOAA’s Jason-3 spacecraft aloft in about five days time, with the opening of the launch window slated to take place at 10:42 p.m. PST. As usual, NASA is taking no chances and has doubled it up with a backup launch scheduled for January 18 at 1:31 PM (18:31 GMT). The spacecraft carries instruments provided by the French space agency CNES and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to measure sea level, wave heights and wind speeds at sea level, as well as water vapor content in the atmosphere.
