3 ms·

What is more impressive, spacex is going to do a high altitude test of this system in a few months. I don't know the details, but it sounds like they are going

• nkoren 13y ago
  Not in a few months: in three weeks: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/tracking/index.html http://www.spaceflightnow.com/tracking/index.html The plan is to do a return-to-launchpad maneuver -- except that not to the actual launchpad, but to a point offshore -- followed by a controlled "landing" on the ocean. Allows them to test the entire flight profile of a Falcon 9-R (reusable) booster, using an off-the-shelf stage, absent the flight-weight landing gear (which still hasn't been tested). If this is successful, then I imagine that a series of flight-weight landing gear tests will be in order, followed by high-altitude testing at White Sands. At the rate they're going, we might see them reusing boosters on commercial missions within 18 months or so.