SpaceX Falcon 9 launches, lands in historic first
CAPE CANAVERAL — SpaceX’s successful re-launch of a used Falcon 9 rocket Thursday evening demonstrated technology that will revolutionize the space industry, CEO Elon Musk said.
“This is going to be a huge revolution in spaceflight,” he said. “It’s the difference between if you had airplanes where you threw away an airplane after every flight, versus you could reuse them multiple times.”
The innovation of reusable rockets, Musk believes, will drastically lower costs over time and make it possible to fulfill his ultimate ambition: starting a colony on Mars, using a much larger launch system already in development.
At 6:27 p.m.ET, a Falcon booster first launched nearly a year ago fired the same nine engines to thunder from pad 39A and propel a second mission on its way to orbit, something no rocket has done before.
Less than nine minutes later, the booster stuck its second landing on a robotic “drone ship” stationed offshore — the ninth time SpaceX has landed a rocket.
The booster may be in good enough shape to fly again, but Musk said SpaceX may offer it for display somewhere in the Cape Canaveral area because of its historical significance.
And about a half-hour after liftoff, the rocket’s upper stage capped a perfect mission by deploying the SES-10 commercial satellite in orbit for Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES.
“It’s really a great day, not just for SpaceX but for the space industry as a whole in proving that something can be done that many people said was impossible,” said a jubilant Musk.
For decades, a rocket's only job has been to perform a single launch, and that is still the norm for most launchers.
After engines cut out, the expensive, high-performance hardware is then lost, breaking up in the atmosphere and smashing into the sea.
But since founding SpaceX in 2002, Musk set a goal to develop reusable rockets.
Many in the industry thought landing and re-flying rockets was either too difficult or not worth the cost in fuel and performance that otherwise could be devoted to getting payloads to space.
But Musk sees reusability as fundamental to making humans a multi-planetary species, his stated reason for starting SpaceX.
The first stage of a Falcon 9, he said, represents two-thirds of the cost of a rocket that SpaceX advertises online for $62 million, for a typical satellite mission.
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“It means you can fly and re-fly an orbit-class booster, which is the most expensive part of the rocket,” he said.
Musk estimated that SpaceX has invested $1 billion in developing landing and recovery systems, which will take time to pay off. But he said the economics, including discounts for customers willing to fly on “flight proven” rockets, should turn around next year.
Other launch systems have had reusable pieces, or demonstrated reusability on a smaller scale.
The space shuttle’s twin solid rocket boosters splashed down in the ocean under parachutes, and the orbiter returned to Earth with three main engines. But those systems required costly and time-consuming refurbishment.
Blue Origin has launched and landed its suborbital New Shepard vehicle, being designed to fly space tourists, five times. Those were test flights without paying customers, while SpaceX’s re-launch of the larger Falcon 9 carried a satellite worth roughly $200 million.
Blue Origin, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, also plans to land and recover boosters from orbital New Glenn rockets that could begin launching from Cape Canaveral in 2020.
The arrival of reusable rockets should also be a "game-changer" for satellite operators, said Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer at SES.
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“It opens a new era of reusability and capability for launch vehicles and for the aerospace industry in general,” he said.
With more rockets available to fly, Halliwell said, his satellites won’t have to wait an average of seven months to get into orbit.
“For us, that’s a really big deal, and it really helps our business case significantly,” he said.
SES is considering launching two more missions on previously flown Falcon 9 rockets later this year, and Halliwell expects others to follow SES’ lead.
“The goal is to make this normal,” said Musk. “Of course the thing comes back and lands. Why wouldn’t it?”
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