This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this folio. Terms of utilize.

f9-1

SpaceX took its time to get back on the launchpad subsequently terminal twelvemonth's fueling "anomaly" that resulted in the loss of a Falcon nine rocket and its cargo. The visitor conducted a months-long investigation and finally returned to space concluding weekend with a flawless launch and landing of the first stage booster. Now, the private space business firm headed past Elon Musk has posted some awe-inspiring photos of the booster coming in for a landing.

The recent launch of the Iridium satellite mission was notable non only because it was the first for SpaceX since the explosion. This was besides the first time it has landed a first phase booster in the Pacific Ocean. All the past landings have taken place either on country or in the Atlantic on the "But Read The Instructions" Drone send.

There was a camera on the Falcon 9 that captured the unabridged landing, but as you might look, the quality is a bit lacking. Information technology'southward kind of astonishing it worked at all, but SpaceX was too able to snap some really absurd photos of the Falcon 9 as it came in for a landing on the transport. The images were captures remotely, of course. No one is on the drone ship when the rockets comes in for a landing, merely in case at that place'south a problem and it crashes. You can see all of them in the gallery below.

SpaceX hasn't crashed a booster during landing for a while now — the success rate for standard orbital insertion is really getting up there. For launches that require more power (like geosynchronous orbit insertion) it's all the same a risk landing the first stage booster. The eventual goal for SpaceX is to reuse all the boosters it builds multiple times, which would reduce the costs of getting into orbit by a huge margin.

There take been setbacks for SpaceX's ambitious plans, including an in-flight explosion in 2022 that resulted in the loss of an ISS resupply payload. The incident from last September was eventually tracked to the low temperature of liquid helium every bit it was being loaded. It acquired liquid oxygen in the tank to freeze, making it more vulnerable to ignition. SpaceX has modified its fueling procedures, and this launch (and landing) went off without a hitch.

You tin see these photos and others on the SpaceX Flickr account. The photos of the Falcon 9 launch are virtually as great as the ones of the landing.