SpaceX launch a success!

The car is memorable and people will talk about it either way, whether they think it's cool or stupid

 

It's about positive stimulus

 

I have got to admit it, the booster rockets landing side by side was fucking bad ass!

 

United Launch Alliance has proposed cost-reduction approaches utilizing inflatable decelerators, parafoils, and helicopters for mid-air recovery of rockets.


Partial Rocket Reuse Using Mid-Air Recovery
Mari Gravlee*, Bernard Kutter†, Frank Zegler‡, Brooke Mosley§
United Launch Alliance
Denver, CO
Roy A. Haggard**
Vertigo
Lake Elsinore, CA

AIAA SPACE 2008 Conference & Exposition
9 - 11 September 2008, San Diego, California


free pdf of full paper:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi4xZef4L_ZAhWP71MKHVBWBTYQFggtMAE&url=https://www.ulalaunch.com/docs/default-source/evolution/eelv-partially-reusable-booster-2010.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0f_lVnTeLCE3dCv9nWl0LD

 

reruns of the recent paz launch

 

SpaceX deployment of Paz satellite.

 

SpaceX is using some of the techniques that have been proposed by United Launch Alliance but using a ship instead of a helicopter to try to catch a fairing.


Recycled SpaceX rocket boosts Paz radar satellite, first Starlink testbeds into orbit
Stephen Clark
February 22, 2018

Recycled SpaceX rocket boosts Paz radar satellite, first Starlink testbeds into orbit – Spaceflight Now

excerpt:

"The fairing “falls back from space at about eight times the speed of sound,” SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk wrote on Instagram shortly before Thursday’s launch. “It has onboard thrusters and a guidance system to bring it through the atmosphere intact, then releases a parafoil and our ship, named Mr. Steven, with basically a giant catcher’s mitt welded on, tries to catch it.”"

 

SpaceX Payload Fairing Survives Despite Missing Recovery Net by 'a Few Hundred Meters’
George Dvorsky
February 22, 2018

https://gizmodo.com/spacex-payload-fairing-survives-despite-missing-recover-1823240492

 

but its not the little green pieces of paper that are unhappy

 

Delta Clipper video from 1990's. Vertical takeoff and landing.

Launch at 2:00 in video.

 

McDonnell Douglas DC-X documentary video