spacex-falcon9-stage-one

art SpaceX Falcon 9 landing burn

This piece depicts a Falcon 9 booster in the final stages of its landing burn. The landing legs have been unlatched and are beginning to deploy, the pistons pushing the legs out against the airstream. At the top of the booster, the interstage-mounted grid fins continue to pivot to keep the booster pointed towards the landing pad. Now that the single Merlin 1D engine in the center of the octaweb has slowed the booster down to a near-standstill, the turbopump exhaust flame mostly burns down instead of wrapping around the octaweb and up the side. Read more (3 min)

article A Brief Recap of Reusable Rockets

In the decades since the first rockets flew, the only launch vehicle capable of any kind of reuse was the Space Shuttle, which required in-depth inspection and refurbishment after each flight. Meanwhile, SpaceX and Blue Origin, among others, are revolutionizing the space launch industry and building rockets that can – and have – been reused. What's changed, and why is reusability coming back?

art SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster Landing on OCISLY

My rendition of a Falcon 9 booster landing on Of Course I Still Love You, SpaceX’s East coast droneship. This is a triple-engine landing burn; while SpaceX hasn’t performed a triple-engine landing burn since JCSAT-16, very heavy GTO payloads at the edge of Falcon 9’s capability may require triple-engine landing burns in the future.

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art SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster Glide

My rendition of a Falcon 9 booster returning to Earth after a launch. The four grid fins are guiding it towards its landing pad as it hurtles downwards at supersonic velocities.

In this image, the Falcon 9 is at about 40km in altitude (with entry burn shutdown having occured seconds earlier) and is less than thirty seconds from the start of the landing burn.

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article SpaceX Falcon 9: Liftoff to Landing (Draft)

Like all launch vehicles, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is a marvel of engineering. It starts out at the launchpad, and in less than nine minutes, the second stage (and payload) have reached orbit and are now travelling at over 7500 meters per second (equivalent to a sea-level speed of Mach 22.) That’s really, really fast. And it’s something that every single launch vehicle must do to bring its payload into orbit.

Here’s a very short tl;dr:

  • Reaching orbit is not the same as reaching space.
  • To accelerate the payload to orbital velocities requires a lot of fuel.
  • As the dry mass of the launch vehicle increases, the amount of fuel (and therefore energy) it can store decreases.
  • Therefore, you want the vehicle to be as lightweight as possible and hold as much fuel as possible.

Rocket engineers have spent decades trying to make launch vehicles lighter. The original Atlas ICBM used balloon tanks; unlike a stiff internal framework of stringers underneath a metal skin, balloon tanks employ the pressurization of the tanks to maintain their shape. This makes for a very lightweight tank; however, it’s difficult to build and transport (as it must be pressurized at all times.)

The Falcon 9, though, is a bit different.

infographic SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster Trajectory compared to Blue Origin's New Shepard (Draft) SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster Trajectory compared to Blue Origin's New Shepard Direct link

This is a comparison of the trajectory of the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster returning to Earth and the trajectory the Blue Origin New Shepard takes during a trip into space.

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infographic SpaceX Falcon 9 Hawthorne to Launch SpaceX Falcon 9 Hawthorne to Launch Direct link

This infographic outlines the manufacturing and testing procedures for the SpaceX Falcon 9.

infographic SpaceX Falcon 9 Downrange Propulsive Landing (No Boostback) SpaceX Falcon 9 Downrange Propulsive Landing (No Boostback) Direct link

This is the approximate trajectory of the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster during a downrange propulsive landing (i.e. ocean landing) on the ASDS.

Note that this is the trajectory of a booster during a high-performance mission, and does not include a boostback burn. The approximate trajectory of a Falcon 9 landing with a boostback burn can be seen here.

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infographic SpaceX Falcon 9 Transport SpaceX Falcon 9 Transport Direct link

The SpaceX Falcon 9 is designed to fit on public roads in the US. Here’s how SpaceX transports the different components.

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infographic SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster Hoverslam SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster Hoverslam Direct link

This is a high-level, overly simplified explanation of the “hoverslam” maneuver the SpaceX Falcon 9 performs during landing.