SpaceX booster back in Port Canaveral
The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sailed into Port Canaveral around noon today, three days after launching a commercial communications satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The booster is the fourth that SpaceX has landed on a ship that was stationed about 400 miles off shore in the Atlantic Ocean, in addition to two boosters that have landed on land at the Cape.
The modified barge that the company refers to as an "autonomous spaceport drone ship" arrived at the Port's jetty around noon.
Steel shoes welded around four landing legs kept the 14-story rocket stage from tipping over on the journey home.
A crane will offload the stage from the ship named "Of Course I Still Love You," moving it to a nearby stand where the legs will be removed. Then it will likely be transported to SpaceX's hangar at the base of launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center.
Boeing Starliner access arm installed at Cape Canaveral
The entire process could take a couple of days.
SpaceX has landed six of its last nine Falcon 9 boosters since December. The experimental landings are aimed at developing reusable rockets that might drastically reduce the cost of reaching space.
CEO Elon Musk has said SpaceX hopes to re-launch a used rocket for the first time this fall. No customer or target date has been announced yet.
At 1:26 a.m. EDT Sunday, a Falcon 9 launched the JCSAT-16 commercial communications satellite for Tokyo-based Sky Perfect JSAT.
Like the landing several months ago during another launch for Sky Perfect JSAT, and one that followed for Thaicom, Sunday's touchdown minutes after liftoff was significant because it showed SpaceX can recover boosters on its most demanding missions.
Nice forecast for Delta IV launch early Friday
Those launches delivering spacecraft to orbits more than 22,000 miles up required the rocket to fly faster than on lower-orbit launches, and to feel more intense heating during its return to the ground.
SpaceX is likely to attempt a similar landing next month during a planned launch of an Israeli communications satellite from the Cape. The launch date has not yet been confirmed.
Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 orjdean@floridatoday.com.And follow on Twitter at@flatoday_jdeanand on Facebook atfacebook.com/jamesdeanspace.
