The SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster landed last week on a sea platform (see earlier posting). Here is a video of the drone ship returning with the rocket to Port Canaveral on Monday evening:
And here shows the rocket being lifted from the ship onto the dock:
Today a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a Dragon spacecraft with cargo to the Int. Space Station.
[ Update: Two more videos of the landing
Onboard view of landing in high winds pic.twitter.com/FedRzjYYyQ
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 9, 2016
]
Here is a video of the Falcon 9 first stage landing on the droneship platform at sea:
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A video of the Falcon 9 landing:
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The complete SpaceX webcast:
Blue Origin, the space company owned by Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com fame, flew their New Shepard reusable suborbital rocket vehicle for the third time last Saturday. The rocket takes off with the rocket booster and crew capsule connected together but just above 100 km in altitude the two separate. The crew capsule falls back to earth for a parachute landing while the booster does a vertical tail-first powered return using its liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen engine.
In this test flight they decided to wait till the booster was at low altitude before turning on the engine. As you will see in the video, it comes down really fast and then brakes smoothly for a soft landing:
In a year or two, the New Shepard vehicles will fly people above the threshold to space but for the time being scientific and technology research payloads will be frequent customers. Here are videos describing the two experiments that flew on the above flight:
A University of Central Florida experiment designed to mimic impacts between objects in microgravity is flying aboard the next flight of Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard space vehicle. Principal Investigator: Dr. Joshua Colwell
A Southwest Research Institute experiment designed to better understand the rocky soil on small, near-Earth asteroids is flying aboard the next flight of Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard space vehicle. Principal Investigator: Dr. Dan Durda
Hope to see you at
Space Access ’16 – next week! – three days focused on the technology, business, and politics of radically cheaper space transportation.
Thursday afternoon April 7th through Saturday night April 9th in warm springtime Phoenix, in an intensive informal atmosphere, single-track throughout so you don’t have to miss anything.
Organizations like Agile Aero, DARPA, Lasermotive, Masten Space Systems, NanoRacks, Spaceport America, United Launch Alliance, XCOR Aerospace.
People like Mitchell Burnside Clapp, Jeff Greason, Gary Hudson, Jordin Kare, Dave Masten, Rand Simberg, and Henry Spencer in a variety of presentations and panels.
Progress reports ranging from major government & industry programs through university student & high-end amateur rocket hardware projects.
Plus this year, now that a thriving low-cost space transportation industry is near, a focus on What’s Needed for The Next Thirty Years?
SA’16 is just days away – make your plans NOW. Everything you need to know to be there, at
space-access.org/updates/sa16info.html
Check out the Space Access ’16 Conference in Phoenix, April 7-9. I’ve been attending the annual Space Access Society meeting since 1998 and it continues to be my favorite conference. This year I will participate in two panels.
Here is the latest update:
Space Access Society’s 2016 conference on the technology, business, and politics of radically cheaper space transportation will feature a cross-section of the growing cheap access community, talking about what’s going on now and what will be happening next, in an intensive informal atmosphere, single-track throughout so you don’t have to miss anything.
Confirmed launch-project & space-industry presenters so far: Agile Aero, CubeCab, DARPA XS-1, EXOS Aerospace Systems & Technologies, Frontier Astronautics, Lasermotive, Masten Space Systems, Moon Express, Nanoracks, Spaceport America, Tethers Unlimited, United Launch Alliance, Unreasonable Rocket, XCOR Aerospace.
We’ll also feature essential space writers, bloggers, innovators, and policy leaders including Mitch Clapp, Jeff Foust, Jon Goff, Jeff Greason, Gary Hudson, Jordin Kare, Clark Lindsey, Charles Lurio, Dave Masten, Doug Messier, Jim Muncy, Dave Salt, John Schilling, Rand Simberg, and Henry Spencer for a variety of presentations and panels, as well as progress reports on high-end student & amateur rocket hardware projects.
Our major additional focus this year is, now that a thriving low-cost space transportation industry is near, What’s Needed for The Next Thirty Years? This year’s conference has numerous presentations and panels related to the policy decisions and technology directions needed for Beyond Low Orbit: The Next Step Out.
Space Access has been described as a “Hackers” conference for rocket people, with better content than many other space conferences costing many times more. It’s two-and-a-half days of total immersion in making the future happen. This year’s edition, SA’16, is just weeks away – make those travel arrangements now, reserve your room while our hotel still hasn’t filled up, register online while you still can, and be there!
Full Conference Info at http://space-access.org/updates/sa16info.html
Conference Registration at http://space-access.org/updates/sa16PreRegister.html
Hotel Reservations at http://www.radisson.com/reservation/itineraryEntrance.do?hotelCode=usapnix&promotionalCode=SAS
(SA’16 sessions run from ~1 pm Thursday April 7th through ~6 pm Saturday April 9th.)