blockmemento

// block 389589 · space · 22 December 2015

The first orbital rocket booster lands

The moment this block marks: the liftoff of Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, 20:29 local time, 22 December 2015, 01:29:00 UTC. The first block mined after it is block 389,589, 22 December 2015, 01:34:49 UTC.

On the evening of 21 December 2015, a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 20:29 local time, carrying eleven ORBCOMM communications satellites. It was the first flight of an upgraded version of the rocket, and SpaceX's first launch since June, when a Falcon 9 had broken apart on its way to the International Space Station.

The satellites were only half of the mission. After the stages separated, the first stage turned around, fired its engines to head back towards the coast, braked for its return through the atmosphere and, about ten minutes after launch, set down upright on its legs at Landing Zone 1. No booster of an orbital rocket had ever been brought back this way. People watching along the coast heard its sonic booms as it came home.

The point was reuse: a rocket stage that could fly again instead of being lost in the ocean after a single launch. Within a few years, landings like this one had become routine.

The first block mined after the liftoff, block 389,589, came almost six minutes into the flight, at 01:34:49 UTC. The second stage was still carrying the satellites towards orbit, and the booster was on its way back to the Cape; it touched down about four minutes later. Its hash, like every hash, can be checked on any node.

make this poster see on the chain

Sources