SpaceX has announced the booster for the next supply trip to the International Space Station, will be test landing on four grasshopper-like legs.
The rocket is a Falcon 9 upgraded with new landing legs, which will one day allow the craft to land on land, ready for servicing. Early test flights will meet a more watery end, however. After supplying goods to the ISS, the booster will come in for a soft-landing in the sea, if everything goes according to plan. The team managing the flights, report the rockets will land in the water until precision control can be proven with the system.
For years, officials at SpaceX, including founder Elon Musk, have imagined boosters returning to Earth after missions. Once they land, the boosters could be refueled and reused. Currently, boosters are usually disposed after liftoff. SpaceX intends to solve this problem with its new Grasshopper landing system.
Engineering challenges include slowing the booster down from nearly 25 times the speed of sound to a point where the craft is slow enough to land. Last September, engineers attempted a first test, in which they re-ignited engines on a booster during re-entry. The test was not entirely successful.
"This particular stage was not equipped with landing gear which could have helped stabilize the stage like fins would on an aircraft. The stage ended up spinning to a degree that was greater than we could control with the gas thrusters on board and ultimately we hit the water relatively hard," SpaceX wrote on their Web site.
If the tests at sea are successful, the company may be granted permits to bring its vehicles back to spaceports. If this practice becomes commonplace, it would greatly reduce the cost of flights.
SpaceX already provides the lowest prices to reach space. If they are able to reduce their costs even more, it could change the way spaceflight is seen by business and other organizations. Sending satellites into orbit could quickly become possible for medium-sized businesses, and other groups. This could change communications, revolutionize weather predictions, or bring the world new discoveries in astronomy. It could also mean the end of privacy as ever-more powerful cameras fly overhead.
SpaceX is being careful not to build up expectations for a successful test of the system. Spokesperson Emily Shanklin gives the experiment less than a 40 percent chance of working correctly.
"Given all the things that would have to go right, the probability of recovering the first stage is low. It probably won't work, but we are getting closer," Shanklin wrote in an email to Reuters.
Current landing tests might seem like a minor test, but the effect the system would have on the world could be great. The next step in the conquest of space is scheduled for 16 March.
