SpaceX launches Thaicom-8 - Lands on OCISLY - "One if by land, and three if by sea." - Polidicks

[QUOTE=jamzzster;50449342]Wonder if they can fill the base of the rocket with some sort of ballast to increase stability once on the pad[/QUOTE] It's already pretty bottom-heavy when it's landing. The engines are all down at the bottom, as are the legs, and with barely any fuel left, there's not much weight up top. Plus, they send a team out to tack-weld it to the barge. It's only leaning right now because it actually crumpled a bit during the hard landing.

It's has been transported back to cape. [media]https://twitter.com/jamesncantrell/status/739836493842124801[/media]

In the hangar: [thumb]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CkT0GpCUoAE1L0E.jpg:large[/thumb] [editline]7th June 2016[/editline] Looks like the one on the right has got a new paint job.

I'd take a job at SpaceX washing and painting rockets

[QUOTE=Morgen;50468481]In the hangar: [thumb]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CkT0GpCUoAE1L0E.jpg:large[/thumb] [editline]7th June 2016[/editline] Looks like the one on the right has got a new paint job.[/QUOTE] If I was a betting man, I'd say that's OG2's core that got the bath.

Its still mindblowing when about a year ago we were anxiously waiting for the first rocket to successfully land, now we are up to four that have landed. Anybody have any idea how much money is saved from these reused rockets?

[QUOTE=OvB;50468633]If I was a betting man, I'd say that's OG2's core that got the bath.[/QUOTE] Yeah I agree, probably getting ready to ship it out and put it on display at Hawthorne.

[QUOTE=Deathtrooper2;50468664]Its still mindblowing when about a year ago we were anxiously waiting for the first rocket to successfully land, now we are up to four that have landed. Anybody have any idea how much money is saved from these reused rockets?[/QUOTE] Had the same question recently. The F9 is something like $60mil to constuct and $200k to fuel. idk about mission operations. Right now they aren't saving as much as they could be because it's such a new and experimental thing but they're supposedly aiming to drop the price down to be less than $10mil. Realistically that's a milestone that, if achieved, will likely be years down the line. For the sake of comparison: a space shuttle launch could cost $500mil-$1.5bil.

[QUOTE=Sojourner;50469137]Had the same question recently. The F9 is something like $60mil to constuct and $200k to fuel. idk about mission operations. Right now they aren't saving as much as they could be because it's such a new and experimental thing but they're supposedly aiming to drop the price down to be less than $10mil. Realistically that's a milestone that, if achieved, will likely be years down the line. For the sake of comparison: a space shuttle launch could cost $500mil-$1.5bil.[/QUOTE] [quote]Though the new landing technology has yet to have any impact on launch costs, the improved engines on the latest Falcon 9 have. Between tweaking the efficiency of the nine Merlin engines and the trick of using supercooled liquid oxygen to carry more oxygen, SpaceX was able to boost the low Earth orbit (LEO) payloads carried by the Falcon 9 from 13,150 kg (28,991 lb) to 22,800 kg (50,265 lb). Doing the sums, this means that under the old prices, a Falcon 9 cost $2,111 per pound to reach LEO, while the improved version costs $1,233 per pound. The reason why the overall price is higher is because the rocket now carries a much larger payload. It looks higher because launch costs are an all-or-nothing system.[/quote] [url]http://www.gizmag.com/spacex-price-raises-lower/43643/[/url]