Rhody Writes

St. Louis, MO – On December 4th, my house in St. Louis, Missouri became the site of the first North American space launch of the year, with Elon Musk taking to the skies.

This marked a triumphant moment for SpaceX. It’s unlikely that anyone else at this point is doing this.

I am starting this project after seeing the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch the rocket off the Pad 41 structure of Los Angeles, California. I had a personal connection with Musk and his SpaceX vehicle. My brother is the chief pilot for the Dragon capsule for the SpaceX mission. My other brother is a Naval fighter pilot in the 50s and still today continues to fly these fighter jets. My sister is a doctor and had lived in St. Louis for many years after my parents died. I was proud to be in the launch pad area when many members of my family actually survived the St. Louis Flood of 1993.

I knew the need for a record breaking event to mark the 40th anniversary of the Challenger accident would lead to an inspiring event. The Falcon 9 first stage that carried the Dragon capsule to space successfully ignited in space. It has since been successfully ejected from the body and taken to a designated area to be retrieved and sent back to Earth.

SpaceX used the Delta 2 as the second stage and then placed the Falcon 9’s, first, in the approximately 45-minute orbit. The first stage performed remarkably well from the standpoint of creating spectacular geostationary flight when it is in low-energy orbits used to launch GPS satellites. The Falcon 9 also achieved and maintained precise guidance, and can be trained to change modes which are used to capture “blue moon” type orbits for take-off and landing. These can be made tighter as the Falcon 7 engines are considered to be better at precision control of free-falling spacecraft to achieve precise terminal trajectories.

The Falcon 9 achieved some remarkable reliability. The first stage shut down as it had been instructed to perform at a distance from the first stage of the preceding vehicle. This is a rare occurrence because these types of technologies usually would shut down later in flight, as a result of the manufacturing quality of the systems and their reliance on a more efficient power source. The first stage has been flying since 2001.

The Dragon capsule flew five consecutive days during which it was released, landed, and then retrieved.