“The first stage of the Falcon 9 just landed on our Of Course I Still Love You droneship”, SpaceX wrote on Twitter, after launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 4:43 pm (2043 GMT).
Advertisement
US-based private aerospace manufacturer SpaceX has landed its rocket on a drone ship, being successful for the first time since four previous attempts resulted in a failure.
Friday’s launch will be SpaceX’s first cargo run for NASA since its launch accident in June 2015, though Musk’s company has since flown three times successfully for other customers.
After approximately 2 and a half minutes, the main portion of the SpaceX’s two-stage rocket separated and then turned around and headed toward a landing platform located in the middle of the Atlantic around 185 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral.
NASA said if the habitat performs favorably, the technology could lead to future development that will aid in deep space travel, such as getting astronauts to Mars and beyond.
Along with BEAM, the spacecraft is packed with 7,000 pounds of cargo, including food, supplies and science experiments.
The cargo ship that lifted off on Friday, a capsule dubbed Dragon, was due to arrive at the space stationon Sunday. The company also launched the first inflatable room ever built for astronauts. Inflatable habitats are created to take up less room on a rocket, but provide greater volume for living and working in space once expanded, NASA said, noting that this test allows investigators to gauge how well the expandable habitat protects itself against solar radiation, space debris and contamination.
Nasa, the USA space agency, which paid for the mission, immediately congratulated SpaceX on the achievement.
The next SpaceX’s mission is scheduled in May or June this year.
The only concern is landing a rocket without damaging it critically.
Missions that launch payloads toward geostationary orbit and beyond Earth will not be able to carry enough fuel to make it back to their launch sites, Musk said during a post-launch briefing Friday; this explains why SpaceX is gaining expertise with the drone-ship landings. The Dragon rocket is expected to rendezvous with ISS on April 10.
One of the most significant pieces of cargo stowed on board the Dragon was the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, the launch is a huge moment for Bigelow Aerospace, the project of real estate billionaire Robert Bigelow.
