For those of you with a love of Space Technology this year (and next) is packed full of developments. The big news this week was Space X's 'nearly there' attempt at landing an autonomous rocket (following the successful launch of a resupply payload to the ISS): If they succeed, the price of Space Flight is going to tumble as the first stage is >60% of the cost of any rocket and Space X is already one of the cheapest in the business. The rocket didn't get it's lateral velocity in check and tipped over a fraction of a second after it landed, despite correction efforts. Even so, this is a big achievement and it looks like the first successful landing could happen within the year. From the recovery ship (and rocket itself): From the barge: Like Space X? You'll love this: P.S. I love Space tech and follow a lot of the latest new. Would anyone be interested in me writing a longer post which covers some of the cutting edge stuff being developed at the moment?
Post away as long as you try to keep the technical jargon down to a minimum. I would be interested. I of course am old enough to remember seeing on TV the moon landings and space has always fascinated me.
I've been following SpaceX (and pretty much anything that Elon Musk is involved with) and also other space related companies like: Orbital Science, Deep Space Industries and Planetary Resources (they had Arkyd 3 satelite onboard of CRS-6 mission, to be launched from ISS to space). Can't wait to see succesful booster landing this year (hopefully), it was sad news to read from twitter moments after the live broadcast. After I saw the video of the landing I was amazed how well it worked... Seems like they have some things still to sort on the very final stage of landing, but other than that, it seems like they're very close. At least they've proved that they can land accurately so maybe they can get a green-light from authorities to land on hard land. Also can't wait to see first Falcon Heavy launch and what SpaceX has on pipe for future generation vehicles. I really hope they'll get the opportunity to do manned flights to ISS and back.
