Falcon 9 first-stage landing testsThe Falcon 9 first-stage landing tests were a series of controlled-descent flight tests conducted by SpaceX between 2013 and 2016. Since 2017, the first stage of Falcon 9 missions has been routinely landed if the rocket performance allowed it, and if SpaceX chose to recover the stage. The program's objective was to reliably execute controlled re-entry, descent and landing (EDL) of the Falcon 9 first stage into Earth's atmosphere after the stage completes the boost phase of an orbital spaceflight.
Falcon 9 Full ThrustFalcon 9 Full Thrust (also known as Falcon 9 v1.2, with variants Block 1 to Block 5) is a partially reusable medium-lift launch vehicle, designed and manufactured by SpaceX. Designed in 2014–2015, Falcon 9 Full Thrust began launch operations in December 2015. As of , Falcon 9 Full Thrust had performed launches without any failures. Based on the Lewis point estimate of reliability, this rocket is the most reliable orbital launch vehicle currently in operation.
Barge de récupérationvignette|Of Course I Still Love You transporte la première fusée ayant atterri avec succès en mer (Falcon 9 FT étage B1021, mission CRS-8, le 8 avril 2016). Une barge de récupération autonome (en anglais autonomous spaceport drone ship, en abrégé ASDS) est un navire de haute mer dérivé d'une barge pontée, équipé de moteurs de maintien en position et d'une grande plate-forme d'atterrissage.
Falcon 9vignette|Schéma comparant les différentes versions des Falcon 9 développés par SpaceX. Le Falcon 9 est un lanceur spatial moyen/lourd partiellement réutilisable développé par la société américaine SpaceX dont la dernière version peut placer une charge utile de en orbite basse ou de en orbite de transfert géostationnaire. Le premier tir a eu lieu le . L'objectif de SpaceX est de fournir un lanceur permettant d'abaisser fortement le prix des mises en orbite grâce à des coûts de fabrication modérés, et à la récupération et la réutilisation des étages.
Flight testFlight testing is a branch of aeronautical engineering that develops specialist equipment required for testing aircraft behaviour and systems. Instrumentation systems are developed using proprietary transducers and data acquisition systems. Data is sampled during the flight of an aircraft, or atmospheric testing of launch vehicles and reusable spacecraft. This data is validated for accuracy and analyzed before being passed to specialist engineering groups for further analysis to validate the design of the vehicle.
