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After the spectacular takeoff of Cape Canaveral before the sky burst, a Falcon 9 rocket was put into orbit early Saturday with a Dragon cargo capsule in pursuit of the International Space Station.
Less than nine minutes later, the first rocket propeller fell from the sky and made a one-time propulsive landing just off the coast, paving the way for a new NASA replenishment mission using the same rocket this summer with the same vehicle.
The 65-meter (213-foot) high rocket took off with a flash of its nine main Merlin 1D engines at 2:48:58 EDT (6:48:58 GMT), about the time Cape Canaveral under the orbital plane of the space station.
The Falcon 9 rocked northeast to align with the flight path of the space station, recording a 1.7 million pound thrust into a starry sky. Less than two and a half minutes later, the first rocket booster stopped and separated to begin a descent to Earth. It was aimed at SpaceX's "Space of I Still Love You" drone stationed 22 km to the east. of Cape Canaveral in the Atlantic Ocean.
The first step allowed three of its engines to start burning to go back and return to Space Coast Florida, while the Falcon 9's top floor continued the main goal of Saturday's mission. : Orbiting a Dragon cargo ship. packed with 5,482 pounds (2,482 kilograms) of supplies, supplies and experiments for the station and its crew of six.
The interacting gas plumes from the first and second-stage Merlin engines of Falcon 9 produced a dramatic lighting effect giving the appearance of a cosmic nebula over the Florida spaceport.
The second leg fired for six minutes to place the Dragon tanker in a preliminary orbit. Moments later, the automated spacecraft deployed from the Falcon 9's upper deck and deployed two energy-generating solar panels, paving the way for a sequence of propeller firing over the next two months. days, which resulted in the approach of the space station Monday morning.
Station astronauts will use a robotic arm to attack the Dragon spacecraft, which will be moored to a Harmony module port for a stay of nearly a month.
The Dragon cargo ship, which uses the same pressurized section as the one that previously went to the space station in August 2017, carries crew supplies, spare parts and many experiments ranging from biological investigations into the effects of theft. space on the body up to an instrument. Measuring carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere, according to a US military experiment developed jointly with NASA to demonstrate X-ray communications in space for the first time.
The replenishment mission is the 17th cargo launch to the station by SpaceX as part of a $ 3.04 billion contract covering 20 freight shipments until early 2020. SpaceX has subscribed a separate follow-up contract for at least six other replenishment missions to the station until 2024, with a $ 2.6-billion contract for the construction of an improved Crew Dragon spacecraft to transport astronauts to their destination and from the space station.
The Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to leave the Space Station on June 3 and travel to the Pacific Ocean to tackle the collision with search specimens and other equipment.
The successful landing on the drone ship of the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket after Saturday's take-off marked the start of the SpaceX launch campaign for the next Space Station refueling flight scheduled for 8 July from Cape Canaveral.
NASA and SpaceX have agreed to use the same first step as the one used on Saturday for the next cargo mission, SpaceX CRS-18, and possibly for the next launch of CRS-19 in December, officials said. A press conference Saturday morning.
The first stage of the rocket, which spans 15 floors, made its first trip to the edge of space, then Saturday's flight. SpaceX has already used first-floor boosters up to three times before, and the company says the latest generation of Falcon 9 boosters can fly up to 10 times before needing a major renovation.
SpaceX canceled a launch attempt Friday morning to solve an electrical problem on the drone, an ocean-sized platform the size of a football pitch used for rocket landings at sea. This was the first time SpaceX had delayed a launch to ensure the recovery of the first stage for reuse, a practice that the company believes reduces costs and facilitates the pace of rocket production at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
"It's a case-by-case decision," said Hans Koenigsmann, Vice President of Construction and Flight Reliability at SpaceX. "This is a new vehicle. The reminder is worth a lot of money. We want to recover it, obviously. This is increasingly part of the mission and it is important to maintain the manifesto. It is planned for the next CRS mission. We will see how this will happen, depending on the inspection and some other elements of renovation. "
SpaceX has already abandoned before reaching its Falcon 9 boosters, most recently on mission last year. Weather and rough seas prevented the SpaceX drone vessel from reaching an offshore landing site in the Atlantic Ocean for a launch in March 2018 aboard the Hispasat 30W-6 communications satellite.
SpaceX chose to launch on time without recovering the first stage booster.
After the abortion of Friday's launch attempt, SpaceX returned the drone to Port Canaveral for repair. The ship leaves the port Friday afternoon.
The landing site for the first leg of Falcon 9 during Saturday's mission was unusual. Most space station replenishment missions do not fully exploit the capabilities of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which leaves a large amount of fuel propelled by the first leg to reverse course and return to Cape Canaveral for a landing. down.
But SpaceX's Landing Zone 1, located at Cape Canaveral Air Base, is not available for this launch after the SpaceX CX Dragon capsule explosion during its ground test. , April 20th. Parts of the landing zone are still banned for safety reasons, according to Hans Koenigsmann, Vice President of Construction and Flight Safety at SpaceX.
Read our previous story for the latest details on the crew dragon accident.
For the heavier missions requiring more dynamism in the first leg, SpaceX usually positions the drone hundreds of kilometers from the shore, allowing the rocket to follow a ballistic trajectory downstream, then slow down to land without having to return to Florida.
The parking space reserved for the UAV in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 28 km southeast of launch pad 40, allowed the first leg of the Falcon 9 to follow a return profile similar to that provided for in the origin to bring the booster back to the landing zone 1.
A "close" landing of a drone had already taken place after a launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in December.
Because the drone was so close to shore, SpaceX had time to solve the electrical problem on the landing platform in time for a new launch attempt on Saturday.
NASA approved the decision.
Kenny Todd, NASA Space Station Operations Manager, told reporters after Saturday's launch that the one-day delay would not have a significant impact on the science or maintenance schedule. from the station.
"In the end, when they said it was what they wanted to do, knowing that we had today (and) (weather) conditions were much better today." I certainly thought it was an OK trade, "Todd said. "From the point of view of the space station program, if we left today, our research would be accepted and we would be able to move forward in our mission.
"If the situation had been different from the point of view of the station, we would certainly have engaged this conversation at a different level," Todd said. "But it was certainly not necessary yesterday."
The SpaceX launch team also faced the threat of storms during Friday's countdown and a helium link in ground equipment on the launch pad. It turned out that no problem would probably have prevented the launch on Friday, but SpaceX wanted to recover the booster of the first step.
The first step of Falcon 9 on the previous cargo launch, SpaceX CRS-16, in December, suffered a malfunction during the descent, forcing it to autonomously derive a planned return to the landing zone. 1 from Cape Canaveral to an offshore landing.
The booster landed intact, but it tipped into the sea. SpaceX towed the scene to the harbor, but the rockets are not designed to be reused after landing in salt water.
SpaceX planned to fly this recall earlier this year from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as part of a mission to deploy three Canadian Radarsat observation satellites into orbit. The launch was scheduled for February, but the Booster landing accident in December forced SpaceX to find another rocket for the Radarsat mission, delaying its take-off for several months.
The launch of the Radarsat Constellation mission from California is now scheduled for June 11, with the addition of a Falcon 9 accelerator stolen for the first time in March on a launch from Florida.
Todd said NASA had "a vested interest" in a successful first-stage recovery after the launch of the cargo on Saturday.
"We will demand it, and the intention is to use it for us for SpaceX-18, of course, and potentially 19," Todd said. "So, from our point of view, it made a difference. It was in the back of the minds too.
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.
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