Tag: Booster

Falcon 9 Landing Video

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From the recent success of the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch and subsequent landing of the first stage rocket booster, space flight has been changed.  The future of space flight will become more like an airline, reusing vehicles regularly.  It’s been a long time coming, and it still has a long way to go, but it’s heading in the right direction.  SpaceX recently released video footage of the landing in full. Even though the landing was a secondary goal to the mission, which also launched over a dozen ORBCOMM telecommunications satellites into Earth orbit, it was the newsmaker.  It took a 60...

Rosetta Orbiter / Philae Lander Updates!

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They did it! 10 Years in Orbit and 2 Billion dollars later, the landing is successful and confirmed.  Now comes the fun part: The resulting Science!!! The first image that was beamed through 28 ad a half light minutes showed the lander on its descent, about 3km from the surface. The landing wasn’t perfect though.  In fact it may have ‘landed twice.’  The 4km wide comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko doesn’t have enough gravity to keep the lander from flying out into space, which is why Philae was equipped with a harpoon system to lock it in place on the surface. Yesterday I...