For the 18th time this year,?? ?? ??? SpaceX has successfully launched to space.
After lifting off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center along the Florida coast at 3:46 p.m. on Thursday, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket delivered a communications satellite, Es’hail-2, into orbit for its latest customer, the nation of Qatar.
About 10 minutes later, the rocket booster -- which contains nine expensive, SpaceX-made Merlin engines -- descended through the atmosphere and landed in the Atlantic Ocean on the Elon Musk-named drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You."
This marks the booster's second trip to space and back again. It's also the 31st time the company has managed to land a rocket back on Earth after flying to space.
In 2017, the space company launched 18 times -- including missions for NASA and private satellites. Its customers have grown quite diverse, ranging from the U.S. Air Force to nations like Bulgaria, Korea, and Qatar.
Most of these launches now result in successful returns of the Falcon 9 rocket boosters, an incredible feat considering that SpaceX had plenty of difficulty landing its first Falcon 9 on a drone ship.
Reusability is integral to SpaceX's business plan, which makes launching rockets significantly cheaper than rebuilding everything from scratch, and wasting engines after a single use.
Via GiphySpeaking at a space conference about a refurbished SpaceX rocket, SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell recently said that "it was substantially less than half" the cost of building a new rocket booster.
When a customer like Qatar orders a Falcon 9 rocket launch from SpaceX, they currently pay about $62 million, according to the company's recent estimates. Space analysts have mused that using refurbished rockets could lower this launch price by some $20 million -- or more.
SEE ALSO: Turbulent video shows the moment a Russian rocket failed, sending two astronauts back to EarthSpaceX has five more Falcon 9 rocket launches on the docket for 2018, which would bring its total to a SpaceX-record 22 for the year, if they pull it off.
Nex year, however, looks to be an especially bold year for SpaceX. In early 2019, SpaceX plans to launch a demo of its Crew Dragon spacecraft. If successful, NASA plans to send astronauts into space aboard the Dragon capsule later in 2019.
Paying It Forward
'Marriage Story' memes are helping the internet cope with their broken hearts
Influencer decides violent hijacking best way to elevate online brand
Apple reportedly set to 'cancel' the iPhone's lightning port in 2021
Veteran of the Year
Facebook adds lip syncing feature to Portal speakers
YouTube app joins the billion
Review: The VitaJuwel crystal water bottle was mostly just heavy
10 Members of 2018 JA Leadership Delegation to Japan Announced
Move over Libra, DAI stablecoin comes to Coinbase's debit Card
JACL Supports Survivors of Sexual Assault
Greta Thunberg is 'Time' magazine's Person of the Year 2019
These 2019 entertainment moments were so good we said NOPE!
Women feel more uncomfortable biking to work than men, Strava report finds
OBITUARY: Hiroko Yamagata, 84; Owner of Aoi Restaurant
Samsung Galaxy S11 to have a 108
These are 2019's most bizarre concept cars
Eating the $120K Art Basel banana didn't destroy the art, because art
Not Your Ordinary Summer Camp
Google finally ends support for the original Google Glass
Intel, Vivo and NTT withdraw from Mobile World CongressSee Robert Pattinson's Batman in costume: First lookMitsubishi's LED skylights are perfect for the subterranean apocalypseHuawei denies U.S. intelligence claims of backdoors in its networkHands on with the Galaxy Buds+: The AirPods Pro have some competitionSorry, Mac owners, a new report says Windows PCs are safer from malware'Table Manners' lets you take a disembodied hand on a date: ReviewApple, just pay workers for the time you spend searching their bagsWhat America's epic electric vehicle charging system may look likeJeff Bezos commits $10 billion to fight climate change The unfortunate tenacity of the most common piece of litter Privacy groups actually side with Uber in scooter data fight Microsoft Japan's 4 9 'Game of Thrones' ancestors who might star in 'House of the Dragon' The Popeyes chicken sandwich is coming back and it's bringing lots of Chick Turns out woman covered in blood after wrecking her car was just dressed as Carrie Which new streaming service should you subscribe to? None of them McDonald's and Burger King get graded on their beef. Which one got an F? Apple announces $2.5 billion plan to ease California housing crisis Brave soul channels 'Fleabag' character's terrible haircut for Halloween
0.1402s , 9844.9296875 kb
Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【?? ?? ???】Enter to watch online.SpaceX blasts Es’hail,Global Perspective Monitoring
