INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightSpaceXImage caption
The Block 5 is recognisable from the black interstage which separates the upper and
lower segments
The California rocket company SpaceX has conducted what is arguably its most important launch to date
Flying out of Florida, the firm’s Falcon-9 vehicle lifted a standard telecommunications satellite for Bangladesh into orbit
But the booster incorporated everything SpaceX has so far learnt about reusability
This "Block 5" version of the Falcon is designed to launch and land at least 10 times without any servicing
Earlier iterations of the rocket have not flown more than twice and required some level of refurbishment between missions."It's taken us 16
years of extreme effort, many iterations and thousands of small but important development changes to get to where we think this is even
Crazy hard," said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in a pre-flight briefing with reporters.Block 5 will now become the mainstay of SpaceX's operations
What is more, the vehicle has been built to the "over-engineered" and fault-tolerant standards demanded for human use
The first astronauts to ride the rocket should do so within the year
Friday's mission lifted clear of the pad at the Kennedy Space Center at 16:14 local time (21:14 BST)
Separation of the first and second stages took place just over two minutes later, with the upper-stage and the Bangabandhu-1 satellite
continuing to orbit - and the booster returning to Earth to make a controlled landing
This well-practised procedure saw the first-stage put itself down on a barge a few hundred km out at sea
Image copyrightSPACEXImage caption
The Block 5 booster put down on a drone ship stationed out in the Atlantic
This lower segment of the Falcon will now be inspected by SpaceX engineers
Their expectation is that it will have experienced minimal wear and tear during its flight and can be reused with no parts exchange
If this is shown to be the case, rocketry really will have entered a new era."The key to Block 5 is that it is designed to do 10 or more
flights with no scheduled refurbishment between each flight," explained Mr Musk
"The only thing that needs to change is you reload propellant and you fly again
There would be moderate scheduled maintenance at 10, but we believe Block 5s are capable of on the order of 100 flights before being
retired."The entrepreneur said the company would have perhaps 30 vehicles it would use in rotation.Image copyrightSPACEXImage caption
The Block 5 can better withstand all the stresses of flying to space and back
To the casual eye, the Block 5
does not look very different to the Falcon versions that have gone before it
But it actually includes multiple upgrades, both internally and externally, that should make it more robust
The goal is to be able to get the rocket back on its pad for another flight within weeks rather than months
And to demonstrate the capability of the Block 5 booster, Mr Musk said the company would even try to do a couple of 24-hour, back-to-back
missions at some point next year."That I think would be truly remarkable, to launch the same orbital class rocket twice in one day."The
SpaceX boss explained that the old booster represented about 60% of the cost of a mission
If he can reuse the new Block 5s 10 times or more, then this would have a dramatic impact on the company's business model
Although, Mr Musk warned customers they would not see an immediate drop in prices because he still needs to recover the heavy investment
that went into the development of Falcon technology
The company still has some way to go to re-fly an entire Falcon because it still disposes of the upper-stage - the segment that puts the
satellite payload in orbit
But even that, in time, could be retrieved, believes Mr Musk
And his team is already working on a strategy to bring back the fairing that protects the satellite on the early part of an ascent
Jettisoned about three minutes into the flight, this clam-shell-shaped structure would be brought back down on parafoils to a ship equipped
A clean catch has not yet been achieved
Image copyrightSPACEXImage caption
It has taken 16 years of "crazy hard" effort to perfect the Falcon 9 booster, Mr Musk
says
Mr Musk says the Block 5 will be the last major iteration of the rocket
In the future, design and development effort will increasingly be focused on a much larger vehicle codenamed BFR - or Big Falcon Rocket
This is intended as a multi-function transport system to take significant numbers of people to locations such as the Moon and Mars, or to
ferry them quickly between widely separated locations on Earth
Again, the BFR would be reusable
Friday's satellite payload, Bangabandhu-1, was notable for being Bangladesh's first geostationary communications spacecraft
To be positioned high over the equator at 119.1 degrees East, the platform will provide a range of services including direct-to-home TV and
broadband access.Image copyrightSPACEXImage caption
The Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) is the system on which Mr Musk wants to
concentrate for the future
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@TheIndianSubcontinent.co.uk and follow me on Twitter:
@TheIndianSubcontinentAmos
