Just like Bezos, Musk’s SpaceX Lands a Rocket
by Q3 Technologies Q3 Technologies - Building Quality into SoftwareElon Musk’s SpaceX successfully landed a rocket after
shooting a payload into orbit. This is the first time a rocket has launched a
payload into orbit and returned safely to Earth. The payload consists of 11
ORBCOMM communications satellites. Orbcomm satellites are low Earth orbit
communications satellites operated by the United States satellite
communications company, Orbcomm.
The Falcon 9 rocket, 23 stories high and the most expensive
part of the rocket, has 9 engines and is capable of reaching more than 5,000km
per hour. Launching at 8:29 p.m., the first stage of the rocket, housing most
of the fuel, reached this speed when it separated from the second stage. After
performing an aerial U-turn and upon re-entry, the rocket fired up again to stabilize
and land upright on the landing pad at Cape Canaveral.
"The Falcon has landed," a SpaceX commentator
said, "USA! USA!"
Normally, rockets are designed to crash into the ocean after
liftoff. However, Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX, and Jeff
Bezos, founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, have been working on building rockets
which are able to land after the mission is over. Once the rockets land safely
on Earth, they can be re-used for other spaceflights through refueling.
Although the flight was scheduled for take-off on Sunday, it
was delayed due to technical issues. Specifically, a Monte Carlo simulation run
showed that there are 80% better chances of landing on Monday. Monte Carlo algorithms
rely on repeated random sampling to obtain numerical results.
After this successful launch, Musk says this rocket will be
stored and tested for further studies. There are plans for another similar
launch “sometime next year”.
“11 satellites deployed to target orbit and Falcon has
landed back at Cape Canaveral. Headed to LZ-1. Welcome back, baby!” Must
tweeted.
In June, a Falcon 9 rocket destined to deliver 2,300kgs of
supplies, food, and science experiments to the International Space Station,
exploded in mid-air 2 minutes and 19 seconds after liftoff, following 18
successful missions. The crash was due to overpressure in the rocket’s liquid
oxygen tank caused by a faulty strut, and has upgraded the rocket to fix the
flaw.
In November, Blue
Origin, a rocket company started by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, successfully
launched and landed the New Shepard rocket after launching a capsule that
goes to 100.5 km above the earth’s surface, just the tip of ‘official’ outer
space. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic launched SpaceShipTwo that crashed in
2014, killing one of the pilots onboard.
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