The image shared by Musk shows the true scale of the Falcon 9 rocket. The photo was taken after the Falcon 9 booster landed in Florida at the end of a flight on May 25.
There is a lot of footage online showing the vehicle touching down on the ground or onto an ocean-based barge at the end of a space mission.
Some people know that the rocket's first stage is around 50 meters, but others don't know what it looks like. Thanks to a couple of engineers standing at the base of the booster, Musk's photo gives us the clearest idea yet of the rocket's true size. Seeing it like this makes one wonder if the work that went into developing the landing system for this enormous space vehicle was worth it.
Click on the image to view the entire rocket.
Landed back at Cape Canaveral
(Humans for scale) pic.twitter.com/itiQ48JYmk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 26, 2022
The first-stage landing of the Falcon 9 rocket is a very important part of the operation of the company. The reusability element allows it to save big bucks on mission costs.
The Transporter-5 mission was the eighth launch and landing for the Falcon 9 booster. The Crew-1 and Crew-2 astronauts were sent to the International Space Station in 2020 and 2021.
The Transporter-5 flight was part of the smallsat program that carried 59 small satellites into the air. The first one in June 2020 was the fifth such mission conducted by the company.
At the end of Wednesday's flight, the company shared footage of the booster touching down at Cape Canaveral, marking its 22nd launch and landing this year.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on Landing Zone 1 – SpaceX’s 22nd launch and landing of 2022! pic.twitter.com/wfj4AbrTk4
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 25, 2022
Recommended video
All Rights Reserved © 2024
