Falcon 9
Falcon 9, SpaceX’s reusable rocket, landed back on Earth just a few short weeks ago after landing at Cape Canaveral. Yesterday, Elon Musk, the head of the SpaceX program, announced that the Falcon 9 is already ready to be launched for another mission.
Musk, who recently posted a photo on Instagram just before the world welcomed 2016, showed the Falcon 9 rocket at the Cape Canaveral hangar, with a caption that read: “No damage found,” and that the it was “ready to fire again.”
Next Mission
While it’s not clear when the Falcon 9 is set to go on its next launch, Space X’s plan for reusable rockets is a major step towards a more cost efficient approach for space missions. Previous reports show that it cost $60 million to make the Falcon 9 and $200,000 to fuel it, but being able to reuse the spacecraft means these costs can be lowered substantially. At present, SpaceX thinks that most of the refurbishment the Falcon 9 will require are minor adjustments and replacements.
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