The glorious moment is captured in SpaceX’s webcast posted above, with the drone-ship landing starting around 38:00-if you listen closely, you can hear everybody at SpaceX mission control let out sounds of disappointment when a flash of light envelopes the monitor (they thought the rocket had exploded), but then a huge and hearty cheer when they realize that the rocket did not blow up, but actually landed perfectly.
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The JCSAT-14 spacecraft will be operated by Sky Perfect JSAT Corporation, a Japanese telecommunications company formed in 2008 through the merger of Sky Perfect Communications, JSAT Corporation and Space Communications Corporation.
The mission was a challenging one. It was stationed about 200 miles off the coast in the Atlantic Ocean. Both the launch and landing of the Falcon 9 were broadcast live online by SpaceX and by the Space.com website.
SpaceX launched the Falcon 9 at about 1:21 am EST, deployed a Japanese JCSAT-14 satellite into orbit, and then made its return back to earth, with a landing confirmed at about 1:31 a.m.as the second stage rocket pushed the satellite into orbit. The SpaceX press material itself seems doubtful of the mission’s success.
Because of the high altitude needed for this mission, SpaceX didn’t expect a successful landing. Before liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, he put the chances of a successful touchdown at “maybe even” because the rocket was coming in faster and hotter than last time. After delivering the satellite, the company’s employees gathered to watch the rocket attempt a landing, but they were skeptical. The landing was fast and hard, but the rocket stuck it like an olympic gymnast.
SpaceX has landed its Falcon 9 rocket in the middle of the ocean once again, this time at double the velocity, even though the company’s CEO Elon Musk expected this particular launch to fail. The booster rocket is the most expensive part, so the ability to reuse it would allow SpaceX to significantly reduce the cost of launching payloads. The successful JCSAT-14 launch and second stage rocket recovery provesthe viability of that business model.
It is not just the speed at which the rocket is moving that must be decreased, SpaceX also had to address the stress and heating on components that comes with the launch process.
What’s next for Elon Musk and SpaceX? Last week the company also won its first contract to launch a U.S. military satellite, breaking a 10-year hold on the contracts by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Two triumphs in a row raises their “batting average” to 33 percent, which isn’t too shabby considering that each Falcon 9 rocket costs million.
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Still, Falcon 9 was able to successfully land on its target. The company achieved the same feat on 8 April during a space station supply run for Nasa. And because the JCSAT-14 has to be placed at a much higher orbit, the rocket had less fuel at its disposal for a proper descent.
