posted 05-05-2014 08:19 AM               

SpaceX Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) vehicle test flights

The Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) testing program is SpaceX's next step towards reusability following completion of the Grasshopper program last year.

Future testing, including that in New Mexico, will be conducted using the first stage of a F9R, which is essentially a Falcon 9 v1.1 first stage with legs. F9R test flights in New Mexico will allow SpaceX to test at higher altitudes than they are permitted at their test site in Texas, to do more with unpowered guidance and to prove out landing cases that are more-flight like.

Early flights of F9R will take off with legs fixed in the down position. However, SpaceX will soon be transitioning to liftoff with legs stowed against the side of the rocket and then extending them just before landing.

F9R First Flight Test | 250m

Video of Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) taking its first test flight on April 18, 2014, at SpaceX's rocket development facility. F9R lifts off from a launch mount to a height of approximately 250m, hovers and then returns for landing just next to the launch stand.

posted 05-05-2014 08:21 AM               

F9R Flight Test | 1,000m

Video of Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) taking its second test flight on May 2, 2014, at SpaceX's rocket development facility. F9R quadrupled its height from its previous test to rise to 1,000m.

posted 06-19-2014 06:22 PM               

The cows in the second half of the video reminded me of a story told to me by a Marshall Space Flight Center retiree who was volunteering at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center:

Skunks lived all around in the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge around MSFC. When they'd do an S-IC static fire, they'd sound a warning. The skunks, of course, didn't understand the warning. They didn't know what was going on but they knew that it wasn't good. The skunks knew how to do one thing, and that was to spray. It would stink of skunk scent for days after a test.