ocean-landing

art SpaceX Falcon 9 landing burn

This piece depicts a Falcon 9 booster in the final stages of its landing burn. The landing legs have been unlatched and are beginning to deploy, the pistons pushing the legs out against the airstream. At the top of the booster, the interstage-mounted grid fins continue to pivot to keep the booster pointed towards the landing pad. Now that the single Merlin 1D engine in the center of the octaweb has slowed the booster down to a near-standstill, the turbopump exhaust flame mostly burns down instead of wrapping around the octaweb and up the side. Read more (3 min)

art SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster Landing on OCISLY

My rendition of a Falcon 9 booster landing on Of Course I Still Love You, SpaceX’s East coast droneship. This is a triple-engine landing burn; while SpaceX hasn’t performed a triple-engine landing burn since JCSAT-16, very heavy GTO payloads at the edge of Falcon 9’s capability may require triple-engine landing burns in the future.

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infographic SpaceX Dragon 2 Landing SpaceX Dragon 2 Landing Direct link

This is the approximate trajectory of the SpaceX Dragon 2 as it lands on Earth after a trip to the ISS.

infographic SpaceX Falcon 9 Downrange Propulsive Landing (No Boostback) SpaceX Falcon 9 Downrange Propulsive Landing (No Boostback) Direct link

This is the approximate trajectory of the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster during a downrange propulsive landing (i.e. ocean landing) on the ASDS.

Note that this is the trajectory of a booster during a high-performance mission, and does not include a boostback burn. The approximate trajectory of a Falcon 9 landing with a boostback burn can be seen here.

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infographic SpaceX Falcon 9 Downrange Propulsive Landing SpaceX Falcon 9 Downrange Propulsive Landing Direct link

This is the approximate trajectory of the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster during a downrange propulsive landing (i.e. ocean landing) on the ASDS.

Note that this profile includes a boostback burn; this profile was used during the launch of CRS-8, among others. It’s not used with heavy payloads, such as some of the larger GTO missions; instead, the booster does not perform a boostback burn and ends up much farther downrange, requiring the ASDS to position itself much farther from shore. The approximate trajectory of a Falcon 9 landing without a boostback burn can be seen here.

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