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Next Falcon 9 to Attempt Soft Splashdown

posted by Dopefish on Friday February 21 2014, @01:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the rocket-kits-are-awesome-these-days dept.

WildWombat writes:

"nasaspaceflight.com reports that the next Falcon 9 flight will attempt a soft splashdown off the coast of Florida to test its newly installed landing legs. If successful, this will be a major step along the path to a reusable rocket.

The flight, CRS-3, is an ISS resupply mission scheduled for March 16th. The pace of SpaceX technology development is truly impressive."

 
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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by WildWombat on Friday February 21 2014, @04:22PM

    by WildWombat (1428) on Friday February 21 2014, @04:22PM (#4521)

    Yes. This flight they are going to test the leg deployment and make sure they can land softly and accurately. Once they've proven that the system works they'll attempt landings on solid ground instead of water. They want to be able to reuse the first stage and this is a step in that direction. This has always been a goal of SpaceX and they designed the rocket and the engines with re-usability in mind.

    Cheers,
    -WW

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