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The primary mission (cargo to station) appears on track, and roll control of the booster has been achieved. From Elon: “Last known state for rocket boost stage is 360 m/s, Mach 1.1, 8.5 km altitude and roll rate close to zero (v important!)”

During today’s CRS-3 launch to station, SpaceX will attempt to recover Falcon 9’s booster, by executing a reentry burn and then a landing burn over the Atlantic Ocean. If all goes well, these huge landing legs will deploy partway into the landing burn.

Though success is unlikely with this test (30-40% by SpaceX estimate), it represents an exciting effort toward someday developing a reusable rocket, that returns to land near the launch pad.

Image and updates from SpaceX. Here are my photos of the legs, pre-paint.

18 responses to “Fingers crossed for the first SpaceX Landing Leg Test today”

  1. complex dog Avatar
    complex dog

    Fantastic series of photos Steve! I’m so envious!! 🙂 I’m a huge SpaceX fan and long ago have realized that Elon Musk has far surpassed even Von Braun as the greatest rocket visionary and executor ever. Dreams are great and all but turning an idea into a rocket with landing legs is the stuff of legend.

    Reply
  2. lavardera Avatar
    lavardera

    Any more info on how the return of the booster went? Its been reported that the roll was better controlled. Did the legs deploy sucessfully?

    Reply
  3. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Yes, a soft landing at sea! From Elon: "Data upload from tracking plane shows first stage landing in Atlantic was good! Flight computers continued transmitting for 8 seconds after reaching the water. Stopped when booster went horizontal. Several boats enroute through heavy seas…" And so I emailed a very topical Arthur C Clarke quote to Elon and team.

    Reply
  4. huntster Avatar
    huntster

    Just to clarify Steve, is this particular image yours or from SpaceX, and it’s the rocket carrying CRS-3?

    Reply
  5. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    The images with white paint here are from SpaceX, edited by me. If this is for Wikimedia, I can seek permission from SpaceX to allow you to use the images.

    Reply
  6. huntster Avatar
    huntster

    If possible, that would be outstanding, as we don’t have any quality images of the legs integrated on the vehicle like this. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:OTRS#Declaration_of_co… has everything we’d need. Thanks Steve, you’re the best.

    Reply
  7. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    I have the request in, but I imagine they are engaged with the primary mission now, and a search for the booster. Had it returned to land, it would have been a perfect landing! And reposting the photos (to unhide from the broken flickr UI): Here’s one leg, with me for a sense of scale: You are like grasshopper And on the pad this morning ebd1737f-44af-43e8-bfec-c2af75877698 Meanwhile, in Texas, they had the first test flight of the F9R (VIDEO).

    And here’s Dragon detaching from the Falcon9 on its way to station: Screen Shot 2014-04-18 at 4.29.07 PM More launch shots.

    Reply
  8. huntster Avatar
    huntster

    Thanks again, and completely agree: mission comes first. Here’s hoping the salvage ships are able to locate something to bring back.

    Reply
  9. lavardera Avatar
    lavardera

    The soft landing return of the booster is going to be a huge step forward. How many more missions till they are confident to try it over land?

    Reply
  10. huntster Avatar
    huntster

    Greg, they are taking a slow and steady approach with no firm timeline, but Musk said in the post-flight press conference that he would like to see a first-stage reuse by next year, possibly even later this year.

    Reply
  11. sbove Avatar
    sbove

    Still can’t believe this is a private company product led by a guy I met when he was starting Zip2. 😉

    Reply
  12. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Woot! Here she comes down for a soft landing vertically over the ocean: news Screen Shot 2014-04-30 at 1.30.18 PM More to come…

    Reply
  13. jerrycornelius91 Avatar
    jerrycornelius91

    How does the booster slow down before coming down vertically ? Does it have chutes that open during reentry or something ?

    Reply
  14. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    It is landing under thrust, without parachutes. This amazing video came out yesterday showing the F9R in Texas doing something similar.

    Reply
  15. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Just read an interesting pre-mortem on ULA in PopularMechanics:
    "if SpaceX can follow through with its obligations, and can make truly reusable spacecraft by landing and reusing upper stages, then ULA is doomed. It has played the game well, but the rules have changed, and there was no way ULA’s hardware and business model can keep up with SpaceX’s breakneck innovation."

    "Few will mourn its loss if private space renders ULA extinct. But first, appreciate it for what it was. ULA was born under a cloud, performed better than could be expected, and tried to save money when it could. Now it is simply the living ghost of another era."

    Reply
  16. lavardera Avatar
    lavardera

    Hey, a July launch with a leg test for the booster – any words on how this one went?

    Reply
  17. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Yes, July 14. From Elon Musk: "Rocket booster reentry, landing burn & leg deploy were good, but lost hull integrity right after splashdown. Detailed review of rocket telemetry needed to tell if due to initial splashdown or subsequent tip over and body slam."

    Reply
  18. lavardera Avatar
    lavardera

    video has been posted at their youtube channel:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQnR5fhCXkQ

    Reply

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