SpaceX achieved a remarkable feat on Friday, successfully returning its Dragon spacecraft to flight and making an almost perfect landing of the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a remote barge situated about 200 miles offshore. This momentous event marked SpaceX’s first successful ocean landing, following its impressive land-based triumph in Cape Canaveral, December last year.
This launch marked the first flight for the Dragon spacecraft since it suffered a launch failure in June. The Dragon, bearing nearly 7,000 pounds of cargo, is now on a trajectory to rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) early Monday morning.
The Falcon 9’s successful landing may not have precisely hit the center of the platform, but it was more than sufficient in keeping the equipment dry amidst the rolling Atlantic Ocean. This major accomplishment significantly bolsters SpaceX’s confidence in its pursuit of cost-effective space travel, as it proves the company’s capability to frequently recover and reuse launched rockets.
In December, SpaceX made headlines for landing its first rocket booster on land, an event that SpaceX’s Chief Executive, Elon Musk described as a “revolutionary moment” for rocket flight. Previous attempts to land boosters on drone ships at sea had come perilously close but unfortunately resulted in crashes, making this recent sea-landing a significant milestone for the company.
The jubilant SpaceX team watched from their headquarters in Hawthorne, California, as the first stage of the Falcon rocket landed on the drone ship aptly named “Of Course I Still Love You”. If this booster passes all necessary evaluation, it could potentially be the first ever to be reused for another launch.
However, the condition of the returned rocket stage remains to be seen. It will return to Port Canaveral for a comprehensive evaluation which is expected to take place over the weekend. Meanwhile, the Dragon continues its journey back to the ISS, its first visit in a year.
The Dragon’s cargo includes a prototype Bigelow Aerospace module, which could be a precursor to private space stations and deep-space habitats. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), will be attached to a station port and expanded to nearly four times its packed volume.
Regarding these expandable modules, Kirk Shireman, the head of NASA’s ISS program says, “It is the future.” He envisions humans using these novel modules as we increase our reach into space, eventually leading to inhabitation of Earth’s lower orbit and potentially beyond.
The BEAM will persist on the station for two years while sensors measure parameters such as temperature, radiation levels, and impacts from debris. Throughout its time there, astronauts will sporadically enter the empty module to aid in its outfitting and conduct routine inspections.
Constructed from multiple layers of robust, reinforced materials around a metallic core, the module encapsulates technology that NASA has been developing since the 90s for potential space station crew quarters before cancelling the TransHab program.
The habitats have transitioned from being referred to as “inflatable” to now being called “expandable” to better convey a notion of solidity and structural integrity.
The Dragon spacecraft is also carrying 20 mice as part of a study conducted by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, which is researching muscle wasting – a condition that occurs more rapidly in microgravity.
In preparation for Dragon’s arrival, ISS astronauts Jeff Williams and Tim Peake plan to capture it with the station’s 58-foot robotic arm around 7 a.m. ET on Sunday. Meanwhile, SpaceX has begun planning its next mission, the launch of a commercial communications satellite, scheduled for later this month.
This triumph serves as a significant reinforcement of SpaceX’s mission to revolutionize space travel and augments the anticipation for its future initiatives, like the imminent launch of a commercial communications satellite.
Author: James Dean (@flatoday_jdean)
Via: USA Today