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Commercialization

SpaceX Has Parked Its Rocket 50 Times

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
March 7, 2020
Filed under

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

17 responses to “SpaceX Has Parked Its Rocket 50 Times”

  1. RocketScientist327 says:
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    Hehe – Good ole Bill Posey and Lamar Smith who said (in 2012) we would never land a Dragon. Republican Dinosaurs.

    #CancelSLS and re-direct funds to space programs that work.

    • Terry Stetler says:
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      Republican dinosaurs

      Are you forgetting that (future Speaker of the House) Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R) is Friend of Elon? ?

      https://www.politico.com/st

      • RocketScientist327 says:
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        Nope – Mr. McCarthy has always been a friend of commercial space. My party (the Republicans) need to dump a lot of the dinosaurs. Many of them lost in 2018. 2020 could be promising…

        …we shall see.

  2. PsiSquared says:
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    Wow! 50 successful first stage landings. 82 successful launches (Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy) out of 84. Is anybody pushing back the envelope and innovating as much or as fast SpaceX?

    I still get tingly every time I watch a Falcon 9 first stage land.

    • ThomasLMatula says:
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      Yes, SpaceX is making the “impossible” routine.

      • Seawolfe says:
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        NOT so routine! Remember the several crash landings and the last rocket had wind calculation problems and so landed in the sea just off the barge’s side.

        • ThomasLMatula says:
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          Yes, but those are now the exceptions, not the rule.

        • ed2291 says:
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          The winds were not as predicted so the rocket landed in the water instead of potentially damaging the boat. The systems worked as designed. The payload was delivered to space. Nobody else comes close to Space X.

        • fcrary says:
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          I think that’s the point. Ten years ago, most people thought the idea of landing a first stage was insane. Five years ago, when SpaceX managed to do it, once, most people considered it a massively impressive accomplishment. Now, they get criticism when they can’t manage to do it every time.

        • Vladislaw says:
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          Yes and so the rocket landed in the water rather than damaging the barge.. AS DESIGNED to do.

        • Steve Pemberton says:
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          I am assuming that Thomas Matula chose his words on purpose, he did not say that SpaceX has now “made” the impossible routine, he said that they are “making’ the impossible routine. It’s a process, an ongoing one, and they have been pioneers. Even their most ardent supporters have been generally stunned with how successful their booster recovery attempts have been. Although yes we are starting to get used to it, to the point that a failed recovery now makes the news, even one where the booster purposefully settles gracefully into the sea in a controlled manner in order to not risk damaging its recovery vessel.

    • tutiger87 says:
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      Folks at NASA would have pushed the envelope years ago if they weren’t subjected to the slings and arrows of the folks in DC.

  3. Seawolfe says:
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    I’m STILL waiting on SLS and New Glenn to EVEN fly! Come on now, lets give SpaceX some competition!

    • PsiSquared says:
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      I don’t think SLS can ever be competition for SpaceX. It’s flight frequency alone will prevent that. For that matter, SpaceX can never be competition for SLS. Congress will insure that.

  4. Jeff2Space says:
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    Falcon Cores
    https://www.reddit.com/r/sp

  5. PsiSquared says:
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    Booster B1056 turned around in 2 months. It flew on Dec.17, 2019, and it flew again on Feb.17, 2020.

    Atlantis still holds the record for a turn around at 54 days.

    I don’t know if SpaceX is actively working to see how fast they can turn around Falcon 9 boosters. Further, I don’t know if there’s any info out there that shows when a booster was ready again to fly as opposed to when it actually flew again. Maybe SpaceX hasn’t released that info.