Technological achievements are, it seems, a bit like buses. You wait for ever, and then two come along at once. In November, an American company called Blue Origin sent a rocket to the edge of space before landing it back on the pad from which it had lifted off. That was an impressive trick. But it has just been trumped by another such firm, SpaceX, which has done the same thing with part of a rocket destined for orbit—a much harder task.
SpaceX’s vehicle, one of its Falcon 9 rockets, was sent on its way from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 0129 GMT on December 22nd. This, in itself, was no big deal. Falcons have been travelling into orbit since 2008. What is new is that when the rocket’s first and second stages separated, and the second stage carried on ascending with its payload of 11 satellites, the first stage flipped itself over, re-lit its engines to slow its descent, and headed back to the ground.
Ten minutes after launch, with the flames from those engines illuminating the Floridian evening, the first stage descended from the sky and landed itself upright on a pad a few kilometres from where it had started (a...Continue reading
Source: Science and technology http://ift.tt/1V1EqGL
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