Skip to footer

SpaceX releases video of rocket's unorthodox landing

SpaceX has released a video of a Falcon 9 rocket stage's first 'soft' landing in the Atlantic Ocean. Instead of splashing down like a traditional rocket, the stage used thrusters and 25-foot 'legs' to gently touch down in the ocean, the company reported.

|
John Raoux/AP
A rocket carrying the SpaceX Dragon ship lifts off from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on April 18.

On April 25, SpaceX chief executive officer Elon Musk reported that the first stage of the company's Falcon 9 rocket, which delivered the Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, had successfully made a controlled landing into the Atlantic Ocean using its thrusters.

Now the private spaceflight company has released footage of the "soft landing." The video looks grainy, but a snapshot tweeted by Musk shows a "[p]artly cleaned up frame from rocket landing." 

Confirming a soft landing tracked using telemetry, Musk had earlier said, "[t]he data is very clear. It shows a soft landing, it shows deployment of all the legs."

The landing spot was on the Atlantic Ocean and weather conditions made recovery difficult. "We kind of got unlucky in that we essentially landed the stage in the middle of a big storm. Hopefully, this time we will not have to do that. We'll also be landing in the water much closer to land than the last time," Musk told Spaceflight Now.

Two days later, when boats arrived at the site, what remained of Falcon 9 were "some bits and pieces, including part of one of four legs that extend from the booster's body for landing, as well as a large carbon-fiber structure that joins the first and second stages of the company's Falcon 9 rocket," reported the Monitor's Pete Spotts.

Aimed at reducing the cost of space missions, the Falcon 9 rocket, with its four 25-foot legs, is designed to be reusable. SpaceX had estimated chances of recovering the reusable part between 30 and 40 percent.

The ultimate goal is for the rocket's stages to touch down right next to the launch pad.

“From the ocean, it would probably take a couple of months to refurbish the stage for flight,” Musk told Forbes. “But on land, in principle, we could refly it on the same day.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to SpaceX releases video of rocket's unorthodox landing
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0501/SpaceX-releases-video-of-rocket-s-unorthodox-landing
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe