Thursday, February 1, 2018

SpaceX Falcon 9 Survives Surprise Water Landing

Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX successfully delivered its latest satellite payload, the GovSat-1 communications satellite, into orbit on Wednesday, and--as a bonus--managed to preserve the first stage of the Falcon 9 used in the launch. According to Elon Musk, SpaceX attempted a "very high retrothrust landing in water", which appeared to have been successful, as he posted a photo of the Falcon 9 floating in the Atlantic. SpaceX had said it would not attempt a landing of the stage. Typically, SpaceX has not recovered Falcon 9's used in launch of satellites into geosynchronous orbit, due to the fuel requirements required to reach that orbit. Musk said SpaceX will now attempt to tow the Falcon 9 back to shore. This is the second time that particular Falcon 9 has reached earth intact.