Monday, June 10, 2013

1.5 Million Pounds of Thrust...

That's what this video is of.  Well, actually its video of the Falcon F9-R (R for "reusable") and its first long duration test (some 2 minutes or so).  While on the ground (at sea level) it produces a million pounds of thrust in the vacuum of space this increases to 1.5MM.  While this is well short of NASA's Saturn rockets (+/-7.7MM pounds) and Russia's N1 (+/- 10MM pounds though never successfully launched) it is an impressive feat for a commercial company and will be used in tandem at a later date for SpaceX's missions.  The reusable distinction will also greatly bring down the costs of SpaceX programs and allow for an even further undercut of current space delivery costs.

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