SpaceX rocket booster makes breakthrough landing at sea
By Irene Klotz
 
April 8, 2016
 
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from
Florida on a cargo run for the International Space Station on Friday and its
reusable main-stage booster landed itself on an ocean platform in a dramatic
spaceflight first.
 
The liftoff at 4:43 p.m. EDT (2043 GMT) from Cape Canaveral marked the
resumption of resupply flights by privately owned Space Exploration
Technologies for NASA following a launch accident in June 2015 that destroyed
a different cargo payload for the space station.
 
About 2-1/2 minutes after Friday's launch, the main part of the 23-story tall,
two-stage SpaceX rocket separated, turned around and headed toward a landing
platform floating in the Atlantic about 185 miles (300 km) northeast of Cape
Canaveral.
 
A live video feed broadcast on NASA television showed the rocket booster, its
four landing legs extended, descending over the ocean before settling itself
upright on the platform, roughly eight minutes after launch.
 
"We have a Falcon 9 onboard," a crewman on a nearby recovery vessel radioed to
SpaceX mission control.
 
[This is a sight to see]
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPGUQySBikQ
 
Four previous at-sea landing attempts had failed. But a Falcon 9 main-stage
rocket achieved a successful ground-based touchdown in December, the first
ever during an actual commercial space mission. Friday's feat marked yet
another major milestone in the quest by high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk,
founder and chief executive of the private launch service, to develop a cheap,
reusable launch vehicle.
 
"Looking forward to delivering the goods for you," Musk wrote in a Tweet to
the U.S. space agency after the launch.
 
The rocket's cargo ship, dubbed Dragon, was due to arrive on Sunday at the
International Space Station, the $100 billion laboratory flying about 250
miles (400 km) above Earth.
 
The delivery vehicle was packed with about 7,000 pounds (3,175 kg) of food,
supplies and science experiments, including a prototype inflatable habitat,
bound for the orbital outpost.
 
About a week after Dragon's arrival, ground controllers will use a robot arm
on the space station to pull the 3,100-pound (1,400 kg) Bigelow Expandable
Activity Module, or BEAM, from the capsule's trunk and attach it to a berthing
port.
 
Built by Nevada-based Bigelow Aerospace, the lightweight fabric habitat will
be tested to see how it compares with more traditional orbiting enclosures
made from metal.
 
Roughly a month after its arrival, astronauts aboard the space station will
inflate BEAM with pressurized air, increasing its volume to about the size of
a small bedroom.
 
Bigelow Aerospace, owned and operated by real estate billionaire Robert
Bigelow, plans to follow BEAM with modules 20 times larger to serve as
free-flying orbital outposts leased to companies and research groups.
 
NASA is interested in expandable habitats to serve as crew living quarters
during three-year trips to and from Mars.
 
BEAM's test run is intended to determine how well it withstands the
temperature swings and high-radiation environment of space. The module, made
of layers of fabric and covered in a flexible, Kevlar-like material, also will
be outfitted with sensors to monitor orbital debris and micrometeoroid impacts.
 
(Reporting by Irene Klotz from Cape Canaveral; Editing by Steve Gorman and Tom
Brown)
 
 
Regards,
 
Roger

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