Science

SpaceX: Watch spectacular video of SpaceX Falcon Heavy fairing's Earth re-entry


SpaceX has released an incredible new footage capturing the surprisingly beautiful re-entry of its Falcon Heavy reusable rocket.

The descent of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy payload fairing occurred soon after the enormous rocket’s launch late last month.

SpaceX posted the minute-long video to Twitter, where it soon garnered tens of thousands of retweets and likes.

The revolutionary space company cautioned the footage with: ”View from the fairing during the STP-2 mission; when the fairing returns to Earth, friction heats up particles in the atmosphere, which appear bright blue in the video.”

Payload fairings surround and protect satellites during the rigours of blasting rockets into space.

This protection becomes redundant after rockets leave Earth’s atmosphere, so these fairings are discarded and fall back to Earth.

SpaceX fairings return to Earth in two segments, and each piece is fitted with a parachute and discreet steering thrusters, helping slow the hardware’s descent and help recovery.

SpaceX is keen to reuse these fairings as the combined cost of both halves is worth approximately $6 million (£4.8 million).

These same fairings can be used by both the SpaceX Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9.

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Recovery efforts now involve SpaceX’s net-equipped boat, previously named Mr. Steven but now known as GO Ms.Tree, which catches fall fairings.

Salty seawater is extremely corrosive, meaning it is imperative to prevent fairings from falling into the ocean.

The SpaceX boat was yet to be successful in performing this ambitious feat prior to the Jun 25 Falcon Heavy launch.

And we can now enjoy the historic catch, thanks to video captured from GO Ms.Tree and shared by Elon Musk on social media.

Elon Musk posted the 11-second net-snag video in the same Twitter thread as the fairing-descent video.

Although it is highly likely both videos show the same fairing half, Elon Musk has yet to confirm this.

The June 25 mission was only the third ever for the powerful Falcon Heavy, dubbed Space Test Program-2 (STP-2).

The Falcon Heavy blasted two dozen satellites in space for a variety of customers.

This included a spacecraft for US space agency NASA, which is testing a more environmentally friendly propellant.

While another was LightSail 2, a solar-sailing demonstrator for the Planetary Society.

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy is made up of three modified, strapped-together Falcon 9 first stages.

The central Heavy booster is topped by a second stage and the payload.

The SpaceX Heavy first stages, like that of the Falcon 9, is also reusable.

Shortly after liftoff on June 25, all three boosters came down to Earth for landing attempts.

But while he two side boosters successfully landed safely on Earth, the central one narrowly missed its target a SpaceX drone ship in the Atlantic.



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