spacex-asds

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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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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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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