SpaceX Will Attempt To Land A Rocket On A Barge

Elon Musk, a man who I've written about a number of times here on this blog (namely his "tubular shuttle") is going to have his SpaceX program attempt a rocket landing on a floating barge.  It won't be the entire rocket, only the stage-one portion of the rocket, but this is still a pretty big deal...if it works.

SpaceX has tried to land stage-one rockets on barges before, but with less-than-stellar results.  They both crashed, basically.  However, with the successful landing of their rocket on the ground recently, they have renewed hopes for this attempt.  The landing attempt will take place on January 17 after they launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to send the Jason-3 satellite into orbit.  The Jason-3 is designed to measure sea surface height with an accuracy of within a few centimeters, and needs to be placed in near-polar orbit, which is why it's launching from Vandenberg.  Launching from there gives the rockets greater inclination trajectories, as compared to Cape Canaveral in Florida, where SpaceX made their successful rocket landing back in December. 

The rocket that they will be trying to land is an older version of their Falcon 9 rocket.  It won't be the entire rocket that will be attempting to land upon return, just the stage one rocket, alothough SpaceX is in the process of trying to figure out how to land the stage two rocket, as well.  The stage one portion will launch with the rocket, then upon separation it will rotate, and then use its engines and "aerodynamic fins" to steer itself back to Earth and onto the barge.

Each rocket costs roughly $61 million to build, although $200,000 of that is actually spent on fuel.  If the landing is successful, it could dramatically cut back on the cost of space flight if we were able to retrieve rockets to reuse.  It would also allow rockets to cut back on the amount of fuel that is needed to make a launch of this kind.  A majority of the fuel is spent in the initial lift off, but then fuel is needed for the return turn around and landing.  If the rocket has to steer back to a ground landing zone, then it may require more fuel for the trip.  If they can successfully land their rocket on the barge, then the amount of fuel needed could be dramatically reduced by opening up whole new areas for their rockets that would potentially be closer for an ideal landing. 

So mark your calenders!  The launch of the Jason-3 satellite will be televised on NASA TV, but the landing won't be.  Don't worry, though.  SpaceX should be releasing pictures and video of the landing no matter the outcome.