SpaceX lands its latest Falcon 9 rocket with a mission inspired by an Olympic ace
Cosmic boffins 'channeled' US gymnast Simone Biles to stick perfect landing
PIONEERING experts from SpaceX have carried out their latest rocket launch this time carrying a Japanese communications satellite into orbit 'inspired' by an Olympic gymnast.
The Falcon 9 rocket's launch successfully sent the JCSAT-16 satellite on its way to more than 22,000 miles over the equator for Tokyo-based Sky Perfect.
Less than 10 minutes after lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the first stage of the Falcon 9 deployed four landing legs while and touched down gently on the deck of a ship 'parked' 400 miles offshore.
SpaceX considers booster landings during launches to high orbits, like today's, to have the highest degree of difficulty.
The rocket flies faster than on missions to low orbits, and is subjected to more intense heating as it drops about 75 miles back to Earth.
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But company engineers drew inspiration from an American gymnast's recent acrobatics at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
"We’re channeling our inner Simone Biles, and we’re hoping to stick the landing," said Kate Tice, a process improvement engineer, during SpaceX's launch Webcast.
The rocket stage did just that, making it the sixth time in SpaceX's nine missions since December that a Falcon 9 booster has landed intact — four times at sea and twice on land back at Cape Canaveral.
The experimental landings are advancing SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's vision to develop reusable rockets that could upend the launch industry.
What is SpaceX and what are its plans?
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, better known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California, United States. It was founded in 2002 by former PayPal entrepreneur and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk with the goal of creating the technologies to reduce space transportation costs and enable the eventual colonisation of Mars. It has developed the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles, both designed to be reusable, and the Dragon spacecraft which is flown into orbit by the Falcon 9 launch vehicle to supply the International Space Station (ISS) with cargo. A manned version of Dragon is in development.