SpaceX Lands Its Third Rocket From Space, Reusable Rockets, Routinary Launches Coming?

First Posted: May 19, 2016 05:45 AM EDT
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SpaceX has successfully landed three rockets from space, with two by sea and the other one by land. This achievement has provided the company a number of boosters in its Hangar 39A at the Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The rocket company SpaceX was able to release, over the weekend, some images of those three boosters following Falcon 9, which has sent a Japanese communications satellite transfer orbit of about 35,768 km above the earth in May. The Japanese satellite was later brought back to the coast of Florida and then brought into the hangar. The success of these landings has prompted Musk to post on Twitter, asking for the need to increase the rocket storage hangar's size.

SpaceX's second rocket emerged on a boat, during the night, in the midst of fire and smoke. The three landings have signalled a significant step towards a chief objective of the company and other space companies, which is the reusability. This could fully remake the spaceflight's economics due to the fact that launch expenses are driven not by propellants, but by hardware. A Falcon 9 rocket with kerosene propellant and liquid oxygen will be needing a total of $200,000 for its fuel. According to Musk, the commercial launch cost of the company is $61 million,  Ars Technica reported.

While SpaceX earned significant attention after landing the three Falcon 9's initial stages, the company should now prove that it has the ability to rebuild these rockets and the engines fast as well as cost effective for their new flights. SpaceX initially plans to reduce the Falcon 9 rocket's cost with the reused booster down to $43 million for every flight, with 30% of savings.

SpaceX later wants to make almost all of the Falcon 9 launch system become reusable and make the landings and launches into a routine. As stated by Musk, rapid and full reusability is significant in making the rocket cost effective like an airplane, and that they have to get the rockets to that point, adding that Falcon 9 may fly as many as 100 times prior its retirement, according to The Guardian.

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