South African born Elon Musk has the world’s fledgling private space industry aflutter this morning after his company brought a Falcon 9 rocket safely back to earth. It’s another giant leap for Musk’s SpaceX, which is in a race against Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin to make space travel affordable. The key ingredient is ensuring the rocket can return to base to be re-used, a challenge SpaceX has now overcome. Last night’s achievement comes after years of investment, and incredible persistence to overcome numerous disappointments (SpaceX’s first three rocket launches were disasters, almost killing Musk’s dreams). The super entrepreneur from Pretoria has done it again. – Alec Hogg
By Julie Johnsson and Dana Hull
(Bloomberg) — Elon Musk’s SpaceX showcased his dream of reusable rockets by landing a Falcon 9 booster upright on a Cape Canaveral, Florida, landing zone after lofting a payload of satellites toward orbit.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. pulled off the soft, vertical touchdown minutes after the two-stage rocket propelled its payload of 11 Orbcomm Inc. satellites aloft. It was the company’s first flight since a fiery blast destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket in June, minutes after lift off.
Monday’s mission helped validate Musk’s vision for lower-cost spaceflight and provides SpaceX a boost in his race with fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos to develop craft that can survive the fiery blast and return to Earth to be reused. Instead of ditching the booster, SpaceX used thrusters and sophisticated navigation to steer it from space to Landing Zone 1, a former U.S. Air Force rocket and missile testing range.
Booster rockets have typically been left to tumble back to Earth after launch, leaving them broken up by the intense heat of re-entering the atmosphere. Landing them upright could help winnow the cost of access to space by a hundredfold, Musk has estimated, since the bulk of launch costs comes from building a rocket that flies only once.
Recycling engines and the Falcon 9’s 14-story, aluminum- lithium alloy first stage could enable SpaceX, already the cheapest launch provider in its category, to further undercut U.S. and European rivals. The Hawthorne, California-based company’s standard launch cost is $61.2 million, according to its website.
Using rocket propulsion, SpaceX guided the stage to a slow, controlled stop at Landing Zone 1, a former U.S. Air Force rocket and missile testing range last used in 1978. Musk’s rocket is equipped with small, foldable heat-resistant wings, called grid fins for steering as plunges to Earth at four times the speed of sound (Mach 4). As it approaches touchdown, lightweight landing legs deploy.
SpaceX had planned to attempt a barge landing following its last launch, the rocket that was destroyed in June. Musk has said an initial probe into the failure pointed to a two-foot- long, inch-thick strut, made by a supplier, in a liquid oxygen tank that snapped. SpaceX submitted its investigation report to the Federal Aviation Administration on Nov. 22.
Musk, 44, founded SpaceX in 2002 with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on Mars. In May, SpaceX was certified by the Air Force to compete for military launches with United Launch Alliance LLC, a joint venture of Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.
It’s the first flight of an upgraded version of Musk’s rocket, named for the Millennium Falcon spaceship of “Star Wars” fame, and outfitted with more powerful engines.
