Floating landing platform

A floating landing platform is a large marine floating structure used to land launch vehicle booster stages.

All early orbital launch vehicle stages were expended, the booster stages were destroyed when re-entering the atmosphere or on impact with the ground or ocean. SpaceX landed Falcon 9 boosters on a floating landing platform since 2016 and has been reusing boosters routinely since 2017.

History

After attempts to land orbital rocket booster stages by parachute failed in the late 2000s, SpaceX began to develop reusable technology in the early 2010s, when they contracted with a Louisiana shipyard to build a floating landing platform to land their launch vehicles. The platform had an approximately 90 by 50 meters (300 ft × 160 ft) landing pad surface and was capable of precision positioning with diesel-powered azimuth thrusters[1] so the platform can hold its position for launch vehicle landing. This platform was first deployed in January 2015[2] when SpaceX attempted a controlled descent flight test to land the first stage of Falcon 9 flight 14 on a solid surface after it was used to loft a contracted payload toward Earth orbit.[3][4] The platform utilizes GPS position information to navigate and hold its precise position.[5] The rocket landing leg span is 18 m (60 ft) and must not only land within the 52 m (170 ft)-wide barge deck, but must also deal with ocean swells and GPS errors. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk first displayed a photograph of the newly designated "autonomous spaceport drone ship" in November 2014. The ship is designed to hold position to within 3 meters (9.8 ft), even under storm conditions.[6]

On 8 April 2016, the first stage of the rocket that launched the Dragon C110 spacecraft ahead of CRS-8, successfully landed on the drone ship named Of Course I Still Love You, the first successful landing of a rocket booster on a floating platform.[7] By early 2018, SpaceX had two operational drone ships and had a third under construction. By September 2018, sea platform landings had become routine for the SpaceX launch vehicles, with over 23 attempted and 17 successful recoveries.[8]

As of 2018, Blue Origin is intending to make the first stage boosters of New Glenn be reusable, and recover launched boosters on the Atlantic Ocean, downrange of their Florida launch site, via a stabilized ship that is underway, acting as a moving floating landing platform. The hydrodynamically-stabilized ship is projected to increase the likelihood of successful recovery in rough seas.[9]

In October 2018, the ship was disclosed to be the LPV, built in 2004 as a roll-on/roll-off cargo ship. The LPV was undergoing refit in 2018–2019 in Pensacola, Florida.[10]

gollark: Config "rehashed", bees "deployed".
gollark: It has been 30 minutes ± 300%.
gollark: Okay, I will now do thing.
gollark: I do, I just don't like using it much.
gollark: I can do that in 30 minutes or so. I am currently in bed.

References
  1. "SpaceX Announces Spaceport Barge Positioned by Thrustmaster's Thrusters". Thrustmaster. 22 November 2014. Archived from the original on 7 December 2014. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  2. Bergin, Chris (17 December 2014). "SpaceX confirms CRS-5 launch slip to 6 January". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  3. Foust, Jeff (25 October 2014). "Next Falcon 9 Launch Could See First-stage Platform Landing". Space News. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  4. Bullis, Kevin (25 October 2014). "SpaceX Plans to Start Reusing Rockets Next Year". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  5. Dean, James (24 October 2014). "SpaceX to attempt Falcon 9 booster landing on floating platform". Retrieved 27 October 2014.
  6. Musk, Elon (22 November 2014). "Autonomous spaceport drone ship". SpaceX. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  7. "SpaceX Rocket Makes Spectacular Landing on Drone Ship". Phenomena. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  8. SpaceX to attempt five recoveries in less than two weeks as fleet activity ramps up, NASAspaceflight.com, 19 July 2018, accessed 2 August 2018.
  9. Burghardt, Thomas (20 September 2018). "Building on New Shepard, Blue Origin to pump a billion dollars into New Glenn readiness". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
  10. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin ship to be used for rocket landings docked at Port of Pensacola, Pensacola News Journal, 24 October 2018, accessed 4 November 2018.
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