A SpaceX Falcon 9 rises from Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, May 30.
Photo:
John Raoux / Associated Press
We must not remind readers of the ways in which 2020 was disappointing, but there was good news. The launch of the Covid vaccine is a tribute to American ingenuity and then there is the remarkable success of SpaceX rocket launches.
The latter have become so common that they barely make the news. On Saturday, the company turned on security on one of its 229-foot Falcon 9 missiles, which put an American spy satellite into orbit. It was the 26th launch of SpaceX in 2020.
The part that seems surreal is when the first stage of Falcon 9 falls back to Earth, starts its engines to stop it from falling and then misses a vertical landing. Saturday’s rocket was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Eight minutes later, the first stage touched down on a landing platform at nearby Cape Canaveral. If you’ve never seen this, check out the material online.
Repeated landings are a technical and economic achievement, as they reduce the cost of orbit access. The Falcon 9 reporter was on his fifth mission on Saturday. This was SpaceX’s 70th successful recovery, and in November it was used for the seventh time as a booster. SpaceX says it may eventually fly 10 missions without a major renovation. The company aims for a 24-hour change from landing to relaunch. For almost a decade after the last spacecraft flight in 2011, the Americans were forced to make a trip to the International Space Station with Russian boats. Now I can take Falcon 9.
Space exploration is risky, and two weeks ago a prototype of the SpaceX spacecraft, a 160-meter silver rocket that founder Elon Musk wants to send to Mars, was meant to land easily during a test. Instead, it went down too fast and exploded into a ball of fire. But Mr. Musk was not surprised, at least on Twitter: “I got all the data I needed! Congratulations, the SpaceX team damn it !! ”
The billionaire said this month that he is “extremely confident” that his goal of putting a man on Mars is achievable “six years from now” or “if we’re lucky, maybe four years.” Mr. Musk can be overcome, but this year in particular we can use high aspiration.
Journal Editorial Report: Kim Strassel, Kyle Peterson and Dan Henninger on the best and worst weeks. Image: Erin Scott / Reuters
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It appeared in the printed edition of December 22, 2020.