Orbital Sciences made news when its cargo capsule successfully docked in the International Space Station on Sunday. Now another commercial cargo spacecraft from SpaceX is being tested and will soon deliver a weather satellite in space.
The 22-story Falcon 9 rocket of Space Exploration Technologies blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Station at noon (1600 GMT) to check for updates prior to the commencement of commercial satellite launch service this year.
Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of SpaceX, told Reuters following the send off, "It went better than expected. It was incredibly smooth."
Falcon 9 was carrying with it Cassiope, a small Canadian science satellite, designed to serve as a communications satellite and monitor the space environment around the Earth was ought to be used on the “garaged” Falcon 1 launcher in 2208.
Musk added, "It's certainly a huge relief to have successfully delivered Cassiope to orbit. It's been weighing on me quite heavily.”
The rocket’s two stages were restarted during the flight as an experiment.
In contrast to the usual act of rockets wherein after unloading their payloads into orbit, the boosters tumble back to Earth and naturally explode mid-air before crashing into the sea, Musk is interested in formulating the technology to fly the Falcon’s initial stage back to the send off site or recover, refurbish and reuse it after gently splashing down in the sea.
Musk told Reuters, "The most revolutionary thing about the new Falcon 9 is the potential ability to recover the boost phase, which is almost three-quarters of the cost of the rocket.”
However, neither engine restart went smoothly, but engines were able to collect enough data to strategize on a demonstration launch next year.
Musk added, "The most important thing is we now believe we have all the pieces of the puzzle.”
"We accomplished a lot today," Musk said. "We have a little bit of work to do obviously, but all-in-all I think it's been a great day."
The improved Falcon 9 v1.1 is built with 60 percent more powerful engines, longer fuel tanks, new avionics and software and other features that will boost lift capacity and simplify operations for commercial services.
