SpaceX is a private space company headed by Elon Musk, it has only been around for relatively short period of time and yet has made incredible achievements during this time. It has flown multiple resupply missions to the International Space Station and has even got its first order for a crewed mission to the ISS. There’s one aim that still eludes SpaceX and that’s the proper landing of its reusable rocket. According to a new report the company may try a ground landing the next time around, and that too at Cape Canaveral.
The company has previously tired landing its reusable Falcon 9 rocket on a barge in the sea, and while the attempts came close to be a complete success, they never were.
A report out of Florida claims that SpaceX is going to try a ground landing next time around and for this purpose it has already leased a landing site at Cape Canaveral from the Air Force and even painted it with a big “X” to mark the spot.
Maybe Musk and co. decided it would be better to abandon the floating barge plans for now as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos-owned private space company Blue Origin recently managed to successfully complete the landing of a reusable rocket, it was a ground landing.
Musk, while congratulating Blue Origin on this achievement, clarified that the company’s reusable rocket is only a suborbital vehicle which means it came back from the edge of space in its test light. On the other hand the Falcon 9 has been designed and developed to carry payload and even passengers to orbit, pointing out that it’s much more difficult to steer back a rocket from beyond suborbital space.
SpaceX has not yet confirmed if its next attempting at landing the reusable rocket will be at sea or on land at Cape Canaveral.
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