Space X had a huge setback 4 months ago when its Falcon 9 Rocket exploded prior to lift-off. It cost them hundreds of millions of dollars and was a large setback for Elon Musk’s plans to start transporting astronauts to the International Space Station by 2017, something we currently have to rely on Russia for. After a thorough analysis of the failed launch, conducted together with government agencies, Space X identified the cause for the explosion and moved forward with their launch program again.
As Space X prepared for launch of the first of seven missions for Iridium communications satellites over the last few weeks, they faced intense pressure to succeed with their next launch. Another failure would cause immense damage to the entire program and put the general success of what can be considered the world’s most innovative space transportation company at risk. When one considers the current state of U.S. relations with Russia, it would obviously be a very good thing if we did not have to depend on them for manning the ISS anymore.
Yesterday, when the countdown commenced, the tension was palpable at Space X’s launch center in California as the minutes until launch were counted down. Loud cheers and applause rose from the assembled workers when the Falcon 9 Rocket finally lifted off, and rose again each time another successful stage was reached: at entry into low earth orbit, at separation of the stage 1 rocket, and then again huge applause rang out when the stage 1 rocket, after descending back to earth, landed on the drone ship called “Just Read the Instructions”, which was waiting for it in the Pacific Ocean. Notably, this first successful landing of a rocket on Space X’s Pacific Ocean drone ship was accompanied by an amazing, uninterrupted live feed of the landing filmed from the rocket itself.
The entire event was covered in a Space X live feed on Youtube chock full of tech details and very nice video footage. It is well worth a watch: