Space X lands first stage

[Somnium]

well done to space x for landing their first stage after a successful launch of the ORBCOMM sats! AMAZING

[glend]

WOW I was just watching the whole launch and booster return. A massive feat in rocket development to be able to land that first stage back at a land based pad. Hire Spacex to build the Mars lander! I'm old enough to have seen all the big moments in rocket development and this is near the top.:eyepop:
Well done Spacex. Now about that WARP Drive....

[gary]

Video of the historic landing here -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B6oiLNyKKI

Story here Sydney Morning Herald -
http://www.smh.com.au/world/elon-musks-spacex-falcoln-9-becomes-first-rocket-to-launch-payload-and-return-to-earth-20151222-gltadl.html

Story here CNN -
http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/21/news/companies/spacex-launch-rocket-landing/

[deanm]

Great stuff!

There's a bit of 'willy waving' going on between SpaceX & Blue Origin, who recently successfully returned & propulsively landed their 1st stage after a sub-orbital delivery of a (so far) uncrewed capsule to 100.5 km altitude.

SpaceX's 1st stage separated at 75 km, but it was going sideways, down-range, whereas BO's just went straight up & straight down.

Whose is the greater accomplishment....?!?!

http://spacenews.com/falcon-9-launches-orbcomm-satellites-first-stage-lands/

Dean

[marc4darkskies]

Friggen awesome!!!!

[Somnium]

Space x wins purely for the fact that there is a future here, if all you are doing is going up then down and landing then you can't do much, you can't go to the iss, put things in orbit or set yourself up to go to Mars , it allows space tourists to take a ride and that is about it

[glend]

Blue origin is aimed at competing with Virgin for the 'joy ride' suborbital market, whereas Spacex is a heavy lift orbital payload project with a contract to deliver to orbit. Totally different vehicles. SpaceX uses 100 times the energy of Blue Origin to loft payloads to orbit - a far more serious craft and the pre-cursor for eventual Mars missions if you listen to Musk. This does not dimish Blue Origin's success but remember SpaceX landed theirs on a barge in the ocean early this year, only to have it topple over as it ran out of fuel a couple of feet above the shutdown point. It made the barge upright, a big feat in itself.

[deanm]

Glen - I agree entirely.

Dean