Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) wants to refly its Falcon 9v1.1 first stage sometime in 2015 if it is able to land the stage on land by the end of this year, company founder and CEO Elon Musk said.
SpaceX achieved a milestone April 18 by successfully “soft landing” the Falcon 9v1.1 first stage used in the company’s third Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) launch the same day. Musk said the stage landed vertically in the Atlantic Ocean and successfully deployed its legs, but the stage was destroyed due to rough seas that prevented recovery boats from being deployed for two days. Musk said a soft landing was getting the rocket to return to about “zero velocity near sea level” after deploying back into earth’s atmosphere. SpaceX eventually wants to land the first stage vertically on land.
“I think what SpaceX has done so far is evolutionary, but not revolutionary,” Musk told reporters at the National Press Club in downtown Washington on April 25. “I think…if we can recover the stage intact and relaunch it, the potential is there for truly revolutionary impact in space transport cost.”
The company knows for sure the stage landed vertically with legs deployed, Musk said, due to telemetry transmitted. He said the stage transmitted data for about eight seconds before transmissions ceased. Musk added the first stage landed within a few miles of its target, though he admitted location was second in priority to reducing the speed of the stage as it approached sea level. Musk didn’t say how many more water landings he expects to perform, only that they’ll continue until they feel comfortable enough to land on land.
Musk believes he can drastically lower the cost of launches by reusing the first stage of a rocket, which he estimates to account for 70 percent for the cost of one launch. It would take two months to refurbish a stage recovered from a water landing, Musk said, but the company could refly a stage the same day if it lands on land at the launch site.
Musk said SpaceX has identified several locations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., where the company could perform a land landing. Musk said he’s optimistic SpaceX will be able to perform a land landing this year, and if that happens, the company should be able to refly a first stage sometime in 2015. The vertical landing in the Atlantic Ocean was 12 years in the making, Musk said.
“We’re securing much bigger boats (next) time” to traverse the potentially choppy waters, Musk said, as even the U.S. Coast Guard wouldn’t test the seas April 18.
SpaceX has another shot at improving recovery time May 10 at Cape Canaveral when it launches an
ORBCOMM [ORBC] satellite that will provide two-way data messaging services for global customers. Musk said to reassure potential customers who may be skittish about using a used stage to launch one of their expensive satellites, SpaceX might have to do a demonstration reflight without a functional satellite on board. This could cost the company about $29 million, or about half the $57 million price of one expendable, or used only once, Falcon 9v1.1. Musk said some potential customers might even want two reflights.
Musk added propellant is only 0.3 percent of the cost of the rocket for an orbital mission, or around $171,000 for an expendable Falconv1.1 flight.