Boat that (nearly) caught a £4million rocket...
AS dropped catches go, it was rather costly.
After a successful satellite launch, space pioneer Elon Musk had an audacious plan to save the falling £4million nose cone from one of his Falcon 9 rockets.
With the cone hurtling towards the Pacific at up to eight times the speed of sound, it was always a long shot.
But even in failure, Mr Musk remained upbeat after his ship – which carries a ‘giant baseball catcher’s mitt’ – came within a few hundred yards of a sensational snatch. ‘Should be able catch it with slightly bigger chutes to slow down descent,’ the billionaire wrote on Twitter.
Made of carbon fibre, the cone – known as a fairing – protects the satellite during the early phase of its launch and is usually discarded after reaching altitudes where the atmosphere’s density is low.
Ordinarily it would drop into the depths of the ocean. But recovering and reusing major pieces of rockets is one of Mr Musk’s key strategies in his ambitious programme to create the largest satellite network ever seen.
He said of the fairing: ‘It has onboard thrusters and a guidance system to bring it through the atmosphere intact, then releases a parafoil, and our ship – with basically a giant catcher’s mitt welded on – tries to catch it.’
Mr Musk posted a picture of the ship, named Mr Steven, showing the giant net suspended between four huge steel arms. He also posted a photo showing half of the fairing floating in the sea, saying there was ‘no apparent damage from re- entry and splashdown’. It is not clear whether it can be recovered.
Mr Musk, 46, is also behind the Tesla electric car. Earlier this month a successful test launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket from his Space X project put a Tesla sports car into solar orbit, along with a mannequin in a space suit.
He has said of re-using a rocket’s nose: ‘The analogy I use with my team is “guys, imagine we had six million dollars on a pallet of cash. Six million dollars is falling through the sky. Would we try to catch it?” ’ This week’s Falcon 9 launch was commissioned by Spain, but alongside its satellite were two smaller craft that will gather data to test and demonstrate the viability of SpaceX building a constellation of satellites. Mr Musk hopes they will bring high speed internet to ‘ billions around the world’. The tycoon said this week that ‘if successful’ the new satellite network would serve the ‘ least served’ around the world. He added that Mr Steven will next see action in ‘about a month’.