SpaceX saved the Falcon Heavy rocket nose cone and is going to reuse it

SpaceX companies after today's first andThe fully successful commercial launch of the Arabsat 6A telecommunications satellite managed to preserve the integrity of not only the three accelerators of the super-heavy launch vehicle Falcon Heavy, but also its nose fairing, which the company plans to use again in one of the future space missions planned for 2019. About this through his page on Twitter, said the head of the company Elon Musk.

“Both parts of thermal protection are matched. They are planned to be used in one of Starlink's missions later this year, ”Musk said, accompanying the message with photographs of the nose fairings selected on the floating vessel.

The fairing is installed in the noselaunch vehicle and is used as an external thermal protection payload during launch. The company has never used these parts again, but it plans to rely on it. Each part of the nasal thermal protection SpaceX equips avionics systems, as well as small bow thrusters, which, together with parachutes, allow them to be gently landed on the ocean surface after mining.

The company goes to such sophistication becauseeach piece of this fairing costs $ 6 million. Mask has previously reported that up to 10 percent of the cost of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle falls on the nasal thermal protection. By the way, the two-stage "Falcon 9", as well as the super-heavy version of the Falcon Heavy (in fact representing three Falcon 9 rockets at once), use the same nose fairings.

The parts saved yesterday in the Atlanticrockets are going to be reused in one of the future Starlink missions. Recall that under this program, SpaceX wants to launch several thousand telecommunications satellites to cover the Earth with high-speed satellite Internet. The first operational launch of the Starlink program is scheduled for next month. It will be conducted using the Falcon 9 launch vehicle from Vandenberg base in California (USA).

It is not yet clear whether it is planned to use the restored fairing within the framework of this mission. Mask did not specify this.

Previously, the company has tried many times to catchthe bow of their missiles using a huge network installed on a special ship “Mr. the steps of the Falcon series rockets are called “Of course, I still love you”), but none of the attempts were unsuccessful.

Spent yesterday on a Falcon boosterHeavy fairing ship "Mr. Steven" did not catch his network. The rocket parts smoothly descended to the surface of the Atlantic Ocean were fished out of the water. Apparently, Musk no longer considers possible corrosion and pollution of the fairing with serious problems.

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