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An autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) is a modified ocean-going barge equipped with propulsion systems to maintain precise position and a large landing platform. SpaceX developed these vessels to recover the first stage (also called the booster) of its launch vehicles. By recovering and reusing these boosters, SpaceX has significantly ...
Later tests attempted to land the rocket precisely on an autonomous spaceport drone ship (a barge commissioned by SpaceX to provide a stable landing surface at sea) or at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1), a concrete pad at Cape Canaveral. The first ground landing at LZ-1 succeeded in December 2015, and the first landing at sea on a drone ship in April 2016.
The vehicle landed aboard the autonomous spaceport drone ship Of Course I Still Love You approximately eight and a half minutes after launch. [2] Normally, first stages supporting CRS missions land at LZ-1 , however a failed static fire of a Crew Dragon contaminated the landing pad.
The rocket landing leg span is 18 m (60 ft) and must not only land within the 52 m (170 ft)-wide barge deck, but must also deal with ocean swells and GPS errors. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk first displayed a photograph of the newly designated "autonomous spaceport drone ship" in November 2014. The ship is designed to hold position to within 3 meters ...
Launch pad Landing location Notes 1 May 30, 2020 85: Dragon C206 Endeavour [47] LC-39A: Of Course I Still Love You: Carried astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station. First fight of the Dragon 2 crew capsule and this booster. 2 July 20, 2020 89: ANASIS-II: SLC-40: Just Read the Instructions
Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship, in port in January 2015. A large floating landing platform for launches where the first stage does not have sufficient fuel to return to the launch site. As of 2022, SpaceX built three autonomous spaceport drone ships, one operating the West coast and two on the East coast of the United States.
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In May 2017, construction on a second, smaller pad began, called Landing Zone 2. This pad is located about 1,017 feet (310 m) to the northwest of the first pad and is used for landing Falcon Heavy side boosters. [12] By June 2017, the landing pad was modified with a radar reflective paint, to aid with landing precision. [13]