by Albert Barkley
Published Tue, Aug 15th 2017, 12:34 | Technology
January 14, 2017, was the last flight made by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, transporting a payload of 10 Iridium satellites in to the orbit, more than 620 KM from the surface of the Earth. SpaceX, again proving its ability to land rockets back on the surface by bringing back the first stage booster back to Earth. Thus making a total number of seven successful landings back to Earth. According to SpaceX’s official website, Falcon 9, a two stage rocket that is the first completely developed and designed rocket of the 21st century, for the purpose of safe and reliable transport of the Dragon aircrafts and satellites in to orbit. Now, the next launch is planned for sometime in the late January or early February by the space transport company. The location of the launch is once again Cape Canaveral, but the launch pad at the Launch Complex 39A has been changed. The payload: a whooping 5.5 metric tons of the EchoStar 23 communication satellite to the geostationary transfer orbit, around 40,000 km from the surface of the Earth.
Such a huge payload means that this time around the Falcon 9 rockets will not have enough fuel to land back on the surface, or on a drone. This was confirmed by the founder/CEO of SpaceX, and the famous entrepreneur Elon Musk on Twitter this Saturday, in reply to a question. He also verified that all future payload of this capacity will be made by either Falcon heavy, or by what the inventor himself has said to be the upgraded and the final variant of the current Falcon 9, the Falcon 9 Block 5. So it’s safe to say that SpaceX is finally launching one of its final expendable rockets, as both the Falcon Heavy and the Falcon 9 block 5 will be capable of landing back, even with a payload as huge as the EchoStar 32 satellite. Now this simply means that by the time first commercial space flights are being handled, the SpaceX will have complete understanding and control of the landing back to Earth.
Now there are expectedly 3 or 4 more expendable rocket landings, after that the company will probably completely shift to reusable rocket, thus decreasing the cost by reusing the landed material. The only question here would be that can SpaceX reduce the resources being used on flying new missions? And will he be able to do it in a timely manner. Because there are rumors that to refurbish a rocket can take a lot of time, in some case it has reportedly been a very slow process. However, as Elon Muck suggests this issue could be resolved and the life of the boosters can be increased if they are kept well maintained and under careful inspections all the time. And no more expendable rockets mean that reusable ones will become a staple of the industry. And landing back on to the surface will become the norm.
Talking about the Falcon 9 block 5, Elon Must is reported to have said that this will be the final upgrade to the Falcon 9 architecture and will bring a noticeable difference in the performance and will make its reusability much easier. And that is certainly some news because since its first announcement, space X has continually played around and modified the Falcon 9 design, in to what it is today. There have been at least 4 unofficial versions of the Falcon 9, Falcon 9v1, Falcon 9 v 2.2, Falcon 9R v 1.1 and Falcon 9 full thrust. So when it’s heard all over that world, that there will be no more updates to Falcon after this, naturally everyone is excited to see what the company comes up with next, because the predecessor to Falcon 9 was a Merlin 1-D rocket engine.
However those looking forward to what comes next might be disappointed, because Elon mentioned in an interview that after this upgrade "I think the F9 boosters could be used almost indefinitely, so long as there is scheduled maintenance and careful inspections,” and with a reported up to 30 percent added to the lift due to the changes in the rocket and propellant, it seems that the block 5 upgrade will indeed allow the Falcon 9 rockets to over extend their stay for quite some time. The new Falcon is being planned to take its first flight by the end of 2017, and is expected to take the payloads such as the current EchoStar satellite to its destination and then fly back to the surface with ease. A lot of speculations hinder on the idea that until the block 5 upgrade is properly instilled, Space X will not reach the maximum reusability.
So what does it all mean? Well let’s look at it in layman’s terms. Usually the rockets that are used are wasted after a single use and can no longer be used in new missions, or any missions for that matter. What Elon Musk and the SpaceX are looking to do is cut the extra cost by bringing back the same rockets and landing them perfectly, which has been done 7 times already, including landing on a drone and landing on the surface of the Earth. However they still had a lot of launches where the rocket did not return back to the surface.
This new launch will be one of the last few, as SpaceX is planning to completely shift to non-expandable or the reusable rockets. So when they start to work on the commercial flights that everyone is looking forward to, the cost is controllable and all of the rockets reusable. Space X is setting a future standard here, since the first time they landed a vehicle back on the surface, to landing one on a drone in the middle of an ocean, each new innovation is what’s going to set the standard for tomorrow’s space travel, and eventually the NOT reusing of rockets will seem like the strangest notion of all.
Author Bio:
Author is a social critic, who loves to look at the changing social trends closely and criticize accordingly. He is an English Literature lecturer from whom you can buy dissertation online. However due to his interest in writing and sharing thoughts with others, he writes articles for different blogs.