It may not have made Tuesday night’s TV headlines, but SpaceX’s dramatic landing of a satellite booster was a historic event — the beginning of truly reusable spacecraft.
The successful flight confirms the Los Angeles-based company’s position as the international leader in space innovation, and California’s continued pre-eminence in aerospace.
The Falcon 9 rockets and their Merlin engines are built in a former aircraft factory in Hawthorne, just blocks from the 105 freeway.
When the 135-foot-tall booster landed at Cape Canaveral, a crowd of hundreds of employees in Hawthorne began chanting “USA…USA…USA” on the company’s live web stream.
Other spacecraft have been reusable, at least to some extent. The Space Shuttle was built to be reusable, but was expensive to operate and its giant external tank burned up after every mission. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has tested a tourist-carrying rocket that can fly to the edge of space and land safely. Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne was reusable, but like Bezos’ craft, was aimed at the tourist market.
The Falcon 9 in contrast is a commercial space vehicle designed to launch satellites, supply the International Space Station, and ferry astronauts beginning in 2017. Landing it successfully must have sent shudders through competitors from China to France, not to mention Boeing-Lockheed Martin’s United Launch Alliance here in the United States.
Launching satellites has been expensive because the rockets are literally thrown away — into the ocean — after each flight. Think how expensive flying would be if a new aircraft had to be built for every flight.
SpaceX is already undercutting the competition, charging $60 million to boost a communications satellite versus $90 million or more for a French Ariane rocket or a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5. There is speculation that a flight on a refurbished Falcon 9 might cost less than $10 million.
Early next year SpaceX plans to up the ante with the first flight of its Falcon 9 Heavy — three boosters strapped together to create the most powerful space vehicle since the Apollo-era Saturn 5. Each of the three will land back at Cape Canaveral to be reused. The Falcon 9 Heavy will add muscle to low cost.
Inexpensive access to space will ultimately be more than good business. It will open up space in the way the canals and railroads opened up North America nearly 200 years ago.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk has often said that his real goal is getting humans to Mars. Tuesday’s historic landing brings California’s aerospace industry significantly closer to that objective.
Chris Jennewein is editor and publisher of Times of San Diego.
