SpaceX will try 'giant party balloon' to recover upper rocket stages
chinatopwin
chinatopwin
2018-04-16 09:39:05
some unusual tactics to make that happen. Elon Musk has claimed that his company will try to
take rocket upper stages out of orbital velocity using a "giant party balloon" -- yes, he knows it
sounds "crazy." He hasn't shed more light on the subject as we write this, but we've reached out
to SpaceX to see if it can elaborate.
If such a system works out, it could provide more than a few benefits to SpaceX. As of 2018,
SpaceX estimates a cost of $62 million to launch a Falcon 9 rocket with a first stage landing
factored in. If it can reliably recover the upper stage with a relatively low-cost method like a
balloon, it can both reduce its own expenses and make launches more attractive to customers.
Throw in the eco-friendliness (there's no dead stage plummeting to Earth) and it could easily be
worth attempting to use a balloon, however ludicrous the idea might sound at first blush.