SpaceX’s reusable rocket ambitions: the latest launches, landings, and relaunches – The Verge

SpaceX even landed the nose cone from its historic used Falcon 9 rocket launch

2017-03-30T20:56:14-04:00

SpaceX had one more victory this evening in its historic reuse of a rocket: it also landed the nose cone on top of the rocket that surrounds the payload to keep it safe, called a fairing. This is a first for SpaceX.

You can think of the fairing like a hard protective bubble atop the rocket. So it's big: five meters - or more than 16 feet - in diameter. Fairing recovery has been a target for SpaceX for at least a year; Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, mentioned fairing retrieval as a goal in April 2016.

Fairings can cost a couple million dollars each

That's because those nose cones, which are made of carbon fiber and aluminum honeycomb, can …

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SpaceX is about to make history by relaunching a used Falcon 9 rocket

2017-03-28T09:55:51-04:00

The Falcon 9 first stage that is relaunching this week. | Photo: SpaceX

On Thursday, SpaceX is set to launch yet another satellite into orbit from the Florida coast - but this mission will be far from routine for the company. The Falcon 9 rocket that SpaceX is using for the launch has already flown before. Around the same time last year, it sent cargo to the International Space Station for NASA, and then came back to Earth to land upright on a floating drone ship at sea. This is the first time that SpaceX will attempt to reuse one of its rockets.

It's a feat that SpaceX has been working toward for more than five years now, and it could be a watershed moment for the aerospace industry. Up until now, practically …

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Here’s a drone’s-eye view of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 landing

2017-02-19T14:21:51-05:00

Rocket launches are always fun to watch, but witnessing SpaceX (or Blue Origin, for that matter) land a rocket is always an awe-inspiring event. This morning, Elon Musk's company successfully landed its third rocket on the ground after delivering its payload into space, and there was a drone in the sky to capture the moment.

It's a unique vantage point, and SpaceX has released some neat videos in the past of its landings and attempted landings. You can check out landings in a 360-degree view, from onboard cameras, from a plane, or from drones hovering near the landing site. No matter how many angles we see this from, it just doesn't get old …

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SpaceX successfully lands its third Falcon 9 rocket on solid ground

2017-02-19T09:49:29-05:00

SpaceX pulled off another successful rocket landing this morning - and this time during the day on the coast of Florida. A Falcon 9 rocket successfully touched down at SpaceX's ground-based landing zone at Cape Canaveral after launching to space. It's the third time that SpaceX has landed its rocket on solid ground post-launch, but the first time a ground landing has been done during the daytime. The success means that the company now has eight landed Falcon 9s in its possession.

The Falcon 9 took off from the Cape at 9:39AM ET, lofting the company's Dragon cargo capsule into space for NASA. The Dragon is filled with nearly 5,500 pounds of …

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SpaceX won’t attempt a landing after its next launch

2017-01-23T11:22:17-05:00

We won’t be seeing any of these pictures after launch. | SpaceX

Over the past year, SpaceX's Falcon 9 missions have become major online spectacles, mostly because each launch has been followed by an attempt to land the rocket after takeoff. But the landing part of the show will be missing from SpaceX's next launch, scheduled for January 30th. This mission will be an expendable one, according to a tweet from CEO Elon Musk, meaning the company won't attempt to land the Falcon 9 post-launch.

It's the first time in a while that SpaceX hasn't tried a landing

It's the first time in a while that SpaceX hasn't tried a landing. The company has been attempting these "experimental" rocket landings since the start …

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SpaceX caught a dramatic photo of this weekend’s rocket landing

2017-01-18T16:15:12-05:00

Photography is mostly about preparation, and the decisions a photographer makes in turn. But many times it's also about luck, and there's no better example of what happens when those two things mix than this incredible photo that SpaceX just published.

The photo shows the 14-story-tall first stage of the company's Falcon 9 rocket moments before it landed on a barge at sea this past weekend. SpaceX has photographed this moment during other landings, and has been publishing high-resolution photos of its launches for a while. But this particular frame got a dramatic boost because the rocket happened to come down right in front of the camera's …

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SpaceX lands its Falcon 9 rocket at sea, following first launch since August

2017-01-14T13:04:55-05:00

Following today's rocket launch, SpaceX successfully landed its Falcon 9 on the company's drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. It's the first landing SpaceX has done since August, and the fifth time one of these vehicles has landed at sea. However, this marks SpaceX's first landing in the Pacific and the first landing for the drone ship "Just Read The Instructions." The feat brings the total number of recovered SpaceX rockets to seven, as two other Falcon 9 vehicles have successfully touched down on solid ground after a launch.

It's the first landing SpaceX has done since August

The company has been on a hiatus from spaceflight, after one of its …

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Watch Elon Musk go through a roller coaster ride of emotions as he watches his rocket land

2016-12-20T14:11:58-05:00

Fans of SpaceX are intimately familiar with the company's first Falcon 9 rocket landing at Cape Canaveral, Florida a year ago, since SpaceX released numerous images and video showcasing the event in amazing detail. But one thing that we didn't get to see was how SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reacted to the event.

National Geographic was there to document the whirlwind of emotions that Musk went through

Fortunately, National Geographic was there to document the whirlwind of emotions that Musk went through that night - ranging from high anxiety to jubilant glee. At one point, Musk experienced an intense moment of panic as he watched the launch from out …

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SpaceX successfully lands its sixth Falcon 9 rocket after launch

2016-08-14T01:37:34-04:00

Another one of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets successfully landed on a floating drone ship this evening, after the vehicle launched a Japanese communications satellite into orbit. The feat marks the fourth time SpaceX has landed one of its vehicles at sea and the company's fifth rocket recovery overall this year.

Now SpaceX has a total of six recovered Falcon 9 rockets

Tonight's landing was particularly challenging for SpaceX, too. The Falcon 9 had to carry its onboard satellite - called JCSAT-16 - into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). It's a highly elliptical orbit that takes the satellite 20,000 miles out beyond Earth's surface. Getting to G …

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SpaceX recently landed another rocket — here’s what it was like to see it

2016-07-22T09:31:49-04:00

When SpaceX successfully pulled off its first Falcon 9 rocket landing in December, I knew it was something I had to see for myself someday. I watched through my computer screen as the 14-story vehicle delicately floated down to SpaceX's landing site at Cape Canaveral, Florida, almost as if gravity was just a minor inconvenience. I was jealous of all the people who got to watch the touch down from the Florida coast, and I made a point to attend the next ground landing.

I knew it was something I had to see for myself someday

I didn't get that chance for a while, since nearly all of SpaceX's rocket landings this year have been at sea, too far a …

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