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SCIENCEThursday 24 December 2015

SpaceX launches rocket 6 months after accident, then lands

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off over Cocoa Beach, Fla., at Cape Canaveral Air Force ployees broke into cheers first-stage rocket landing,”
and chants, some of them Monteith said in a state-
Station, Monday, Dec. 21, 2015. The rocket, carrying several communications satellites for jumping up and down, fol- ment.
lowing the smooth touch- Across the country, SpaceX
Orbcomm, Inc., is the first launch of the rocket since a failed mission to the International Space down nine minutes after employees jammed com-
liftoff. Previous landing pany headquarters in
Station in June. (Craig Rubadoux/Florida Today via AP) attempts ended in fiery Hawthorne, California,
blasts, but those aimed for anxiously awaiting suc-
MARCIA DUNN to land vertically at Cape ment,” Musk later told re- an ocean platform. cess. They cheered at
AP Aerospace Writer Canaveral, Florida, and porters. “No one has ever Musk said he ran outside full throttle when the first
(AP) - SpaceX sent a Fal- represented a tremendous brought a booster, an and heard the sonic boom stage separated cleanly
con rocket soaring toward success for SpaceX. The orbital-class booster, back of the returning booster just two minutes into flight and
orbit this week with 11 small company led by billionaire intact.” as it landed; he assumed it reoriented itself for an un-
satellites, its first mission Elon Musk is striving for reus- What’s significant is that had exploded. He learned precedented return to
since an accident last sum- ability to drive launch costs this was a useful mission, the happy truth when he Cape Canaveral. Then the
mer. Then in an even more down and open up space Musk noted, not mere- went back into Launch roar became deafening,
astounding feat, it landed to more people. ly a practice flight. “We Control and saw video of as TV cameras showed the
the 15-story leftover boost- “Welcome back, baby!” achieved recovery of the the standing rocket. first-stage booster land-
er back on Earth safely. Musk tweeted after touch- rocket in a mission that ac- “I can’t quite believe it,” ing on extended legs at its
It was the first time an un- down. tually deployed 11 satel- he said. “It’s quite shock- new, dedicated landing
manned rocket returned “It’s a revolutionary mo- lites,” he said. SpaceX em- ing.” zone. SpaceX commen-
Musk said the landing ap- tators called it “incredibly
peared close to perfect exciting” and were visibly
and the company “could moved by the feat.
not have asked for a better “This has been a wildly suc-
mission or a better day.” cessful return to flight for
The top officer at Cape SpaceX,” said one SpaceX
Canaveral Air Force Sta- launch commentator. “We
tion, Brig. Gen. Wayne made history today.”
Monteith, noted that the Blue Origin, another bil-
returning booster “placed lionaire’s rocket compa-
the exclamation mark on ny, successfully landed a
2015.” “This was a first for booster last month in West
us at Cape Canaveral Air Texas. That rocket, though,
Force Station, and I can’t had been used for a sub-
even begin to describe orbital flight. The SpaceX
the excitement the team booster was more power-
feels right now having ful and flying faster in order
been a part of this historic to put satellites into orbit.q

NASA calls off next Mars mission; no time to fix leaky seal

MIKE SCHNEIDER strument said Tuesday they still make it to the launch Green, director of NASA’s withstand the harsh, frig-
Associated Press must now decide whether pad in March,” said John Planetary Science Division. id Martian environment.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — the pouch’s vacuum seal Grunsfeld, NASA’s sci- NASA managers said it Leaks had showed up
NASA is calling off its next needs to be repaired, re- ence mission chief. could take several months during previous tests and
mission to Mars because designed or the mission The goal of the mission was of analysis and discussion mission team members
there isn’t enough time to scrapped. The next op- to explore the interior core, before they decide how to thought the problem had
fix a leaky seal on a key sci- portunity to launch the In- mantle and crust of Mars in proceed. A redesign of the been fixed. But the lat-
ence instrument. Sight lander is in May 2018 a way that no other planet part could make the 2018 est tests this week showed
The InSight spacecraft was since the best chances has been studied outside opportunity unlikely since it another leak of unknown
set for launch in March. of launching missions be- of Earth. So far, $525 million could take up to five years. origin. The spacecraft was
The problem is with a pro- tween Earth and Mars oc- has spent on the $675 mil- NASA officials said the de- delivered to Vandenberg
tective pouch around cur for just a few weeks ev- lion mission. lay of the InSight mission Air Force Base in California
the lander’s seismometer, ery 26 months. “We know the interior of wouldn’t affect the sched- last week in anticipation
which was designed to “We’re close enough to Earth and its structure very ule of any other missions to of a launch. It will be sent
measure ground move- launch but unfortunately well, but of the other plan- Mars. back to Lockheed Martin’s
ment on the red planet. we don’t have enough ets, Mars is our only hope The three sensors on the plant in Denver. It would
NASA managers and time to try to identify the to make those kinds of seismometer need a vac- have landed on Mars six
French designers of the in- leak, fix it and recover and measurements,” said Jim uum seal around them to months after launch.q