Elon Musk tweeted out video of SpaceX catching the $3 million half of a payload fairing. The payload fairing are two halves of the cover of the rocket payload.
Rocket fairing falling from space (higher res) pic.twitter.com/sa1j10qAWi
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2019
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Technically Blue Origin was first…with their sub-orbital New Shepard.
But for an orbital class rocket, I think Blue Origin will be the next company to accomplish this feat with their New Glenn.
Third place will likely come from China, as I’ve already Chinese rockets doing hop tests, and rockets with grid fins that look identical to SpaceX’s (I know, shocker).
Some might beat the 10 year mark. However your point is well-taken.
I feel like people are starting to think landing boosters is easy. It isn’t. SpaceX will probably beat the second company to do it by about a decade, and I bet that second was only seriously motivated by SpaceX proving it is possible.
As I understand it, the ship is under automatic guidance as well as the parafoil, but net operations may still be by hand.
Great proof of concept! Now, automate it.
Nice shot. Makes it look easy.
Space is a “target rich” environment. Doing anything in Space has a good chance of paying off one way or another. Go Musk!