Elon Musk’s Space X is scheduled to launch its Falcon 9 rocket today. This is a risky test flight that has 50% chance of being successful.
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“Executing a precision landing on an unanchored ocean platform is significantly more challenging,” the company wrote in a blog post. “The odds of success are not great—perhaps 50% at best.”
The company will then attempt to land the Falcon 9’s first stage segment on an ocean platform it calls an “autonomous spaceport drone ship.” While SpaceX has previously staged two soft landings in water, succeeding on this landing on a platform is a critical next step in realising the vision of a reusable rocket.
Among the challenges, the company has noted, is slowing the 14-story rocket enough while keeping it upright. SpaceX has described the landing as “trying to balance a rubber broomstick on your hand in the middle of a wind storm.”
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Further challenges for the landing, the company wrote on its blog is the size of the autonomous spaceport drone ship.
“The autonomous spaceport drone ship is 300 by 100 feet, with wings that extend its width to 170 feet. While that may sound huge at first, to a Falcon 9 first stage coming from space, it seems very small. The legspan of the Falcon 9 first stage is about 70 feet and while the ship is equipped with powerful thrusters to help it stay in place, it is not actually anchored, so finding the bullseye becomes particularly tricky. During previous attempts, we could only expect a landing accuracy of within 10km. For this attempt, we’re targeting a landing accuracy of within 10 meters”.
The company is aware that this could be a failure but that will not worry it has said as that will be part of the learning process.
Update: The launch has been aborted
The landing can be watched live.
