Geekery: SpaceX Lands a Rocket in the Atlantic
Fifth time is the charm – and it delivered some amazing cargo. Check it!
The Falcon 9 rocket that helped power the Dragon CRS-8 spacecraft into orbit – it delivered supplies and an experimental living pod to the ISS – successfully touched down on a drone ship in the Atlantic ocean on Friday. This is the first successful ocean landing Space-X has accomplished.
For the onboard camera – as you can see it did land a bit off center, but it managed to stabilize.
Onboard view of landing in high winds pic.twitter.com/FedRzjYYyQ
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 9, 2016
To keep up with SpaceX check out Elon Musk’s Twitter and Instagram and SpaceX’s Twitter, YouTube, and website.
The landing was only part this mission. The Dragon CRS-8 delivered an expandable module to the ISS for testing. If all goes well the module may be used for longer missions, possible Mars habitats, and eventually deep space travel.
Provided by Bigelow Aerospace, BEAM will be berthed to the aft docking port of the station’s Tranquility module for a two-year demonstration of the commercial expandable technology. The station crew members will perform maintenance inside the BEAM on a quarterly basis: inspecting for leaks, taking air and surface samples for later analysis, and changing out batteries in instruments measuring temperature and radiation levels and impact data.
Aerospace is moving fast right now… with projects like the BEAM Mars is getting close to reality every day.
What projects have caught your interest lately?
Wageningen UR’s plant experiment crowdfunding campaign is still running – they’re 1/2 way to their goal.
