
SpaceX's Falcon 9 first stage has landed (again) - Signez
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/736313075385540608
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kevan
It's almost like this is becoming a regular occurrence. I'm looking forward to
the next generation looking back on this and being incredulous that we used to
completely throw away boosters on every launch.

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iamcreasy
"I think we will be successful - ironically - when it becomes boring." \- Elon
Musk

At the NASA press conference after the first successful drone ship landing.

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onewaystreet
When will SpaceX actually reuse one of these landed stages? That's the whole
point, right?

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gozur88
At the CRS-8 post-launch presser Musk said "sometime in June", though lately
I've seen them describe it as "later this year". That sort of implies after
June.

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ok_craig
How many do they have?

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51Cards
4 now, though the first one is going on display at their headquarters. I
_believe_ the second one is going to be examined and undergo ground testing
only (might be wrong on that). So that leaves just the third and now this one
as candidates for re-flight.

I like being able to use the term "re-flight".

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eganist
The high velocity drone ship landing (#3) landed too hard and was deemed
unusable for launch duty (Edit 1:
[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/731984739012251648](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/731984739012251648)),
so realistically, it's likely just two of the four so far.

Edit 2: per mikeash, it's definitely flyable (i.e. I'm wrong), but it'll still
be grounded to aid with testing efforts. Thanks for the correction, Mike!
[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/734274360588926976](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/734274360588926976)

~~~
gozur88
The problem isn't that it landed hard, it's that it had to slow down very
quickly. That's going to be the case for any GTO launch, including today's
flight.

From what I understand there was heat damage around the engines.

~~~
eganist
Thanks for the clarification. I'd read that elsewhere but couldn't ID a source
in time. Where've you seen that?

The good news there is that it might mean the rocket can be rehabilitated if
needed since structural damage would be less likely.

~~~
gozur88
Nothing official. This is based on comments (at _Ars_ , I think) from people
who studied the pictures closely.

According to the latest Musk tweets _today 's_ rocket was actually somewhat
damaged in the landing - the scrificial "crush core" was, well, crushed.

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Klathmon
Congrats again to SpaceX!

They had some live footage of the first stage reentry which was pretty cool.

~~~
shorodei
I hope the next SpaceX technological breakthrough is cameras that don't fog up
on reentry.

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vvanders
In all seriousness I hope they release the full feed from that camera. It's
got to be a hell of a view to see it bearing down on the drone ship from
above.

~~~
andor436
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jEz03Z8azc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jEz03Z8azc)

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vvanders
If anyone was wondering about repeatability I think they're well on the way to
putting that to rest.

~~~
woodandsteel
They're landing so many, pretty soon they are going to have to open up a used
booster sales lot.

Speaking of which, when the first booster landed successfully, someone put up
a gag Craigslist ad for a used booster ("only used once, excellent condition")
but it got taken down quickly, unfortunately.

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slizard
Good launch pace, if they keep it up, they'll surely build up a positive
reputation quickly.

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mattbeckman
I've watched the SpaceX launches with my 4-year-old and 2-year-old. Exciting
for me, but they really get into it as well. Indoctrination at it's finest. I
was born in the 80s and missed the moon race, so it's nice to have this new
space race.

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greydius
I'm reminded of my early 20s when I played Everquest hardcore. My guild was
one of the top among all servers. As soon as a new expansion came out we would
quickly get to the endgame content and then spend weeks wiping over and over
until we finally beat it all. Then we'd beat it again. And again. After a few
times no one cared anymore and we went back to "farm-mode" until the next
expansion was released. I guess the "next expansion" for SpaceX would be Mars.

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lvs
Only a few frames of the actual landing, but here was the live stream.

[https://youtu.be/zBYC4f79iXc?t=2290](https://youtu.be/zBYC4f79iXc?t=2290)

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bronz
when are they going to perform a launch with a recycled booster?

