SpaceX first ever re-flight of a Falcon 9 first stage, SES 10

[RCgothic]

http://www.spacex.com/webcast

Launch in T-15m. The live stream from the first stage launch and re-entry is usually pretty epic! And this is the first time one has ever been re-used so history is in the making!

Edit: T-12, SES-10 is now on internal power.

T-9, webcast shows footage of first launch and recovery.

T-5, engines are in chill-down.

T-4, strongback in partial retraction.

T-1, Falcon 9 is in startup!

Lift off!

T+1, Throttledown for Max Q.

T+1.5, Throttleup after Max Q!

T+2.5, main engine cut off, stage separation! Primary mission success!

T+3.5, fairing separation success!

T+6.5, entry burn! Second stage 16000kph at 164km altitude. Entry burn is good.

T+9, landing success! Yes!

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Excellent news. Best part is how mundane it feels - and indeed I see from the articles that this rocket had a turnaround of 4 months before relaunch, and they are hoping to cut that down even further. With something like 9 boosters, SpaceX could easily launch every two weeks without having to build any new boosters at all.

Next question to answer is how the boosters age - i.e. how many times they can be reused.

Grey Wolf

[factotum]

There's also a question as to how many components in this booster have been replaced--that's the expensive part of things, after all. Sure it will get better over time, though.

[RCgothic]

There's also a question as to how many components in this booster have been replaced--that's the expensive part of things, after all. Sure it will get better over time, though.

Elon Musk says that the Block 5 Falcon 9, which is debuting this year, should be able to fly ten times with no service whatsoever. Or 100 times with moderate refurbishment. He's targeting 1000 times for Falcon 9's big brother.

An archive of the webcast is here.

Vehicle start up is at 18m. Main engine cut off and stage separation is at 22m30s. Entry burn and landing sequence begins at around 25m30s.