5/27/2023 0 Comments Flacon 9 landing![]() EST after high altitude separation from the upper stage and around 10 minutes after launch. The history making landing attempt of the boosters first stage took place back at the Cape at the SpaceX Landing Zone 1 site at about 8:39 p.m. Long exposure of launch, re-entry, and landing burns of SpaceX Falcon 9 on Dec. The quartet of side mounted landing legs were lowered into place in the final moments before touchdown. Then it conducted a reentry burn and finally a landing burn above the ground at Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral. It then conducted a boostback burn with a first stage Merlin 1D engine to create a reversed ballistic arc. While moving at extremely high speed of some 3000 mph, the rocket was then commanded to fire cold gas nitrogen attitude thrusters to reorient itself and to turn the vehicle around – its sort of like riding on a broomstick in a hurricane. ![]() The Falcon 9 is equipped with four landing legs and four grid fins to enable the propulsive landing back on the ground at the Cape, once the first stage separates and relights a Merlin 1D engine.Ībout 3 minutes after liftoff and about 60 miles altitude, the spent first stage separated from the second stage which continued to orbit with the Orbcomm satellites. The first stage landing, vertically at night, was apparently perfect and came off without a hitch by all accounts. ![]() The stunning liftoff and landing marked the Falcon 9 boosters ‘Return to Flight’ and is the first launch for SpaceX since the catastrophic mid-air destruction of the rocket six months ago on J– after launching from the same pad as today – on a cargo mission for NASA bound for the International Space Station (ISS) and her six person crew.
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