Most people believe that recycling is a good thing, especially if it means saving millions of dollars on materials and labor. This is one of the reasons why the impending launch of SpaceX’ rocket on March 30th is getting a lot of attention because it will verify whether SpaceX’ Falcon 9 rockets are truly reusable. It might sound simple but building reusable rockets is hard even for those adept at rocket science and spacecraft engineering.
Typical rockets used by NASA are jettisoned after use and end up at the bottom of the Ocean, essentially one shot wonder solutions up until now. To create a rocket that is reusable, it must be able to return home and land safely so that it may be refilled again after it serves its use. To achieve this, SpaceX not only had to solve one rocket science problem, they had to solve several issues involving guidance, navigation, thermal protection, landing gear design and orientation.
On March 30th, the SpaceX Falcon 9 will ferry an SES-10 satellite into geostationary orbit to deliver direct-to-home broadcasting, broadband and mobile services to the Caribbean, Central and South America. Weather permitting, the launch event can be viewed on SpaceX’ YouTube channel where last month’s successful first stage landing has been viewed over 2 million times.
