Falcon 9 Liftoff photo credit; SpaceX SpaceX has carried out a successful rentry trial of its Falcon 9 rocket’s fir...
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| Falcon 9 Liftoff photo credit; SpaceX |
The Falcon 9 booster reentered the atmosphere at hypersonic velocity, restarted its main engines twice, deployed its landing legs and touched down at near zero velocity.
After landing, the vehicle tipped sideways as planned to its final water safing state in a nearly horizontal position.
SpaceX said the water impact caused loss of hull integrity, but received all the necessary data to achieve a successful landing in future. Company also said it is taking steps to minimize the build up of ice and spots on the camera housing in order to gather improved video on future launches.
The next soft landing trial is planned on the flight 13 of Falcon 9, with a low probability of success. Flights 14 and 15 will attempt to land on a solid surface with an improved probability of success.
SpaceX aims to develop a reuseable Falcon 9 launch vehicle system, being able to land successfully on a floating launch pad or at the launch site and reuse the rocket with no required refurbishment.
