The two are from Spacex

On March 30, 2017, Spacex launched the European Ses-10 satellite with a rocket that had previously flown and landed with its own engines. It was the first time something similar happened, and it was a transcendental moment in history which has chealed access to space, leading to the megaconstellation of Starlink satellites. Eight years later, there is a second rocket capable of doing the same. The striking thing is that it also belongs to Spacex.

From Falcon 9 to Starship. Since that historical moment of 2017, the early stages of the Falcon 9 rocket of Spacex have landed 434 times, taking off again 404 occasions. The propeller that has fly more times has the b1067 serial number. Last May 13 He successfully completed Its mission number 28. 17 of them have been launches of Starlink satellites.

Unlike Falcon 9, The gigantic rocket starship It is designed to be totally reusable, but for now it has only demonstrated this capacity for its first stage, the Super Heavy propeller. It is just the second orbital rocket that, eight years after that transcendental mission of Falcon 9, has fly again after a propulsive landing.

Goodbye Booster 14, you have made history. The first Super Heavy to reuse has been Booster 14, which first took off on January 16 as part of the Starship Test Flight 7. The 70 -meter high rocket stage returned to the launch tower after separating from the ship, maneuvering with its engines until they were caught by the arms of the tower itself.

This May 27, after a restoration process, has flown for the second and last time during the Ninth Starship test flight. Its 33 engines worked perfectly in takeoff, despite the fact that 29 of them were used. Spacex did not plan to reuse the propeller a third time, and took the opportunity to test a new maneuver of stages separation, which went well, and a more aggressive attack angle in the descent, which came out regular. The rocket exploded after re -desencing 12 engines to stop on the Gulf of Mexico.

Why it is an important milestone. Although Starship’s ninth mission did not achieve its objectives, the reuse of the super heavy is one more milestone in the program. Such a large rocket had never been reused, in the whole history of space flights, which brings us closer to a new cheaper of satellite throws, since Starship can put in orbit much more more load than a falcon 9 (when Spacex manages to fix the door).

Of course, while the complete reuse of the propeller now seems a matter of time, the reuse of the ship remains a challenge for Spacex. The company has to continue it to the design of its thermal shield before it can also catch the starship with the tower. It is something that Spacex hoped to get on flight 10, but now he will have to wait.

Special mention for Jeff Bezos. The first stage of Falcon 9 and the first stage of Starship, that is, the Super Heavy propeller, are the only “orbital rockets” with “propulsive landing” in reusing successfully. These dimensions are necessary because the first rocket capable of landing with its own engine that flew twice Little New Shepard from Blue Origin. It is a suborbital rocket, without the capacity to launch load to the terrestrial orbit.

In addition to A patent struggle That Jeff Bezos with Elon Musk enhancing, Bezos was responsible for promoting that his rocket had been the first, congratulating Spacex in 2017 to achieve the “second suborbital rocket with reuse capacity”, referring to the fact that, although the Falcon 9 is orbital, its first stage does not reach the orbit before launching the second. Time has played against Blue Origin, whose orbital new Glenn obital debuted with years of delay and without having yet demonstrated its ability to land.

The Rocket Lab company also deserves a separate mention, which “fish” its electron rockets in the sea after soft ametering with parachutes. NASA also used parachute to Recover solid accelerators rockets of the space ferry. But none of these technologies is comparable to the rapid and total recovery that Spacex seeks with Starship.

Image | Spacex

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