The ASDS landing location for the first landing test was in the Atlantic approximately 320 km (200 mi) northeast of the launch location at Cape Canaveral, and 266 km (165 mi) southeast of Charleston, South Carolina. Tasks such as removing or folding back the landing legs prior to placing the stage in a horizontal position for trucking would have been undertaken while the booster was on the stand. A mobile crane would have lifted the stage from the ship and placed it on the stand. The stand consisted of four 6,800 kg (15,000 lb), 270 cm (110 in) tall and 244.5 cm (96.3 in) wide pedestal structures bolted to a concrete base. Īs of December 2014, the first drone ship used, the McDonough Marine Service's Marmac 300 barge, was based in Jacksonville, Florida, at the northern tip of the JAXPORT Cruise Terminal, where SpaceX built a stand to secure the Falcon stage during post-landing operations. On 22 November 2014, Musk released a photograph of the "autonomous spaceport drone ship" along with additional details of its construction and size. Early information indicated that the platform would carry an approximately 90 m × 50 m (300 ft × 160 ft) landing pad and would be capable of precision positioning so that the platform could hold its position for launch vehicle landing. In October 2014, SpaceX announced that they had contracted with a Louisiana shipyard to build a floating landing platform for reusable orbital launch vehicles. In 2009, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk articulated ambitions for "creating a paradigm shift in the traditional approach for reusing rocket hardware". Around three quarters of recovered Falcon boosters land at sea as of 2022. Less demanding launches from Florida can return to Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, while less demanding launches from California can return to Landing Zone 4. Any Falcon flights launched into geostationary orbit or exceeding escape velocity require landing at sea, or expending the first stage. SpaceX offers three options, depending on launch requirements: landing on land, landing at sea or expending the first stage, in order of increased performance and cost. The ASDS are a key early component of the SpaceX objective to significantly lower the price of space launch services through "full and rapid reusability", part of the multi-year reusable rocket development program engineered by SpaceX. JRTI operated in the Pacific Ocean for Vandenberg Air Force Base launches from 2016 to 2019 before leaving the Port of Los Angeles in August 2019. SpaceX has three operational drone ships: Just Read the Instructions (II) (JRTI) and A Shortfall of Gravitas (ASOG), operating in the Atlantic for launches from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY), operating in the Pacific for supporting missions from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Construction of the drone ships was commissioned by aerospace company SpaceX to allow recovery of launch vehicle boosters at sea for missions that do not carry sufficient fuel to return to the launch site after boosting spacecraft onto an orbital or interplanetary trajectory. For booster recoveries on land, see SpaceX Landing ZonesĪn autonomous spaceport drone ship ( ASDS) is an ocean-going vessel derived from a deck barge, outfitted with station-keeping engines and a large landing platform, and is autonomously positioned when on station for a landing.
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