A SpaceX Falcon 9 takes off from Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, May 30.
Photo:
John Raoux / Associated Press
We don’t need to remind readers of the ways 2020 has been daunting, but there is good news. The rollout of the Covid vaccine is a tribute to American ingenuity, and then there is the remarkable success of the SpaceX rocket launches.
The latter have become so routine that they barely make the news. On Saturday, the company lit the fuse on one of its 229-foot Falcon 9 missiles, which launched a US spy satellite into orbit. It was SpaceX’s 26th launch in 2020.
The part that looks surreal is when the Falcon 9’s first stage returns to Earth, fires its engines to stop its fall, and then lands upright. Saturday’s rocket was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Eight minutes later, the first stage landed on a landing pad in nearby Cape Canaveral. If you’ve never seen the achievement, check out the footage online.
The repeated landings are a technical and economic achievement as they reduce the cost of access to a runway. The Falcon 9 booster on Saturday completed its fifth mission. This was SpaceX’s 70th successful recovery and a booster was used for the seventh time in November. SpaceX says you can ultimately fly 10 missions without a major overhaul. The company is aiming for a 24-hour turnaround from landing to relaunch. Nearly a decade after the last Space Shuttle flight in 2011, Americans had to ride Russian craft to the International Space Station. Now they can take the Falcon 9.
Space exploration is risky, and two weeks ago, a prototype of SpaceX’s Starship, a 50-meter silver rocket that founder Elon Musk plans to send to Mars, was planned to land gently during a test. Instead, it came down too quickly and exploded into a fireball. But Mr. Musk was not surprised, at least on Twitter: “We have all the data we needed! Congratulations SpaceX team damn !! ”
The billionaire said this month that he is “very confident” that his goal of putting a man on Mars is achievable “six years from now” or “if we’re lucky, maybe four years.” Mr. Musk can lead the way, but especially this year we can make use of the high ambition.
Editorial magazine report: Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson and Dan Henninger on the best and worst of the week. Image: Erin Scott / Reuters
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Appeared in the December 22, 2020 print edition.