COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.–Turning around a rocket and reflying as soon as possible is key to Space Exploration Technology Corp.’s (SpaceX) rocket reusability efforts, according to a key official.
SpaceX Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said April 5 minimal refurbishment of engines is critical to rapid reusability. She said, in addition, the company must land the stage, perform critical checks and inspections, refuel and then launch. Shotwell said SpaceX’s goal is to refly a rocket within 24 hours. Shotwell said SpaceX “of course” performed “way more” refurbishment on a recently reflown booster than it will do on future boosters.
Refurbishing things after they have been in the ocean is hard, Shotwell said, so the company is trying to avoid that. Part of NASA’s attempt at reusability with the Space Shuttle was to recover its solid rocket boosters, which took place after every flight, according to industry consultant and Shuttle program veteran Rand Simberg. The Shuttle was designed and constructed to be a reusable vehicle and an economic replacement for expendable launch vehicles that were thrown away after one use.
The first stage isn’t the only part of the rocket SpaceX plans to reuse. Shotwell said the company recovered at least one of the fairings after the recent reflight. Though not as expensive as the first stage, the fairings are very expensive and that SpaceX will continue to attempt fairing recoveries moving forward, she said.
Though it had lofty goals, Simberg said Shuttle had a number of hurdles that prevented it from becoming a truly, and economically feasible, reusable vehicle. He said these included a maintenance-intensive turnaround of the orbiter, including engine inspections, tile replacement and a different takeoff than landing mode. Shuttle launched vertically, but landed horizontally like traditional aircraft. The orbiter is the “airplane” like part of Shuttle.
While SpaceX is the first company to refly a used booster on a satellite mission as it did the week of March 27, it is not the first entity to attempt reusability. Blue Origin has successfully reflown its New Shepard rocket multiple times, but not on a commercial mission. Blue Origin, for its part, said its BE-3 engine is using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as propellants, just like Shuttle’s main engines. These engines are now known as the RS-25, an expendable engine being developed for NASA’s Space Launch System by Aerojet Rocketdyne [AJRD].
Shotwell’s remarks came at the 33rd Space Symposium.