SpaceX publishes a video that allows you to follow the ascent of a Falcon 9 rocket, until the moment the fairing is ejected.
This is an unusual sequence that SpaceX just shared on February 6. While it is more accustomed to showing the return of its rockets after the completion of their mission, the American company published a video on YouTube which makes it possible to follow not only the ascent of a Falcon 9 launcher, but also and above all the release of the cap.
SpaceX knows how to recover the fairing of its rockets
The fairing is an element located on the upper part of a rocket, whose role is to protect the payload – generally a satellite – from air friction and external turbulence. Once the density of the atmosphere is low enough, the fairing disassembles in anticipation of when the payload will be released into space.
SpaceX started from 2019 to recover this fairing, which is made up of two sections. At first, the group only managed to recover one out of two. But in 2020, the company has become much more skilful in its catch-up: it can now bring the two pieces back to their destination, in order to reuse them for other space missions.
For SpaceX, which orients its entire strategy around recoverable, low-cost and reusable launchers, the recovery of the fairing is crucial: this part, apparently very simple (it is roughly only a protective shell), has a cost estimated at 6 million dollars, according to Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX. This part represents 10% of the price of a launch.
To retrieve the caps, SpaceX explored two methods: the first is to stretch a net over a ship to catch each piece before it hits the ocean. A parachute is present in each section to slow down its fall. The other is less spectacular: it is a matter of rescuing the segments from the surface of the water, if they have not sunk.