“This was a fantastic way to end the year for SpaceX East Coast launches,” Jensen told reporters. SpaceX spent $50 million rebuilding the pad.įriday’s successful liftoff means SpaceX has now launched from all three of its pads - two in Florida and one in California - in the same year. The last time a Falcon rocket stood at the pad ready to fly, in September 2016, it blew up during a fueling drill. This was the first launch from the SpaceX-rented Complex 40 in more than a year. The only way to get thousands of people into space - the ultimate goal of Musk - is by drastically cutting launch costs, she said. Jessica Jensen, a SpaceX manager, said the company aims to reuse rockets - and capsules - far more than twice. After extensive reviews, the risk of flying a reused rocket, versus a brand new one, was judged to be pretty much equal, he said.įriday’s booster recovery was the 20th for the company. But managers waited until SpaceX had three rocket reflights under its belt, before putting NASA’s station equipment and experiments on a secondhand Falcon. NASA flew its first reused capsule back in June. ![]() “The reality is, the business of space is dominated by launch costs … so getting the costs down is important for everyone,” Shireman said. Reusability is the future for spaceflight, according to NASA’s station program manager Kirk Shireman. Rather than letting first-stage boosters sink in the Atlantic, as other orbital rocket makers do, SpaceX flies them back to Cape Canaveral for vertical touchdowns or, when extra rocket power is needed to propel a satellite extra high, to a floating ocean platform. ![]() For the past two years, the private SpaceX has been salvaging as much as possible from rockets following liftoff.
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