On Friday afternoon of last week, SpaceX did it again. After a successful launch of their Falcon Nine rocket carrying a Thaicom 8 communications satellite, they successfully returned the booster to a platform floating on the ocean.
SpaceX has now demonstrated their ability to do this three consecutive times within the last 2 months. According to reports, the satellite was carried to its geostationary transfer orbit which required the first stage to perform a series of engine burns to bring it back to Earth on target. Because this launch and recovery occurred in the daytime, the videos clearly show the pinpoint accuracy of its touchdown. We are sad to say that the airshow community has suffered its second tragedy in nearly as many weeks as long-time Warbird pilot and industry good-guy, Bill Gordon, did not survive the ditching of the American Airpower Museum P-47 he was flying last Friday. When the U.S. bailed out of its manned spaceflight program about four years ago with the grounding of our fleet of space shuttle aircraft, our government elected to pay the Russians to provide our astronauts transportation to and from the international space station. Now, according to TASS, the official Russian news agency, the Russian Space
Agency Roscosmos has said ‘nyet’ to extending their transportation agreement past its expiration date in 2018. All this -- and MORE in today's episode of Airborne!!!
Airborne 05.31.16 is chock full of info in this Daily News Episode, Tuesday, May 31st, 2016... Presented by Aero-TV veteran videographer and Airborne Hosts Brianne Cross and Christopher Odom, and supported by ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief Jim Campbell, Chief Videographer Nathan Cremisino, and Aero-Journalists Tom Patton, and Earl Downs, this episode covers:
- Falcon Launch/Landing Successes--Third Time At Sea!
- Bill Gordon Lost In Hudson River P-47 Ditching
- Russian ISS Taxi Service To End In 2018
- AeroSports Update: FIFI Will Be At AirVenture
- Aero-Calendar
- Another UAV Has Been Blasted Out Of The Sky
- Airman Missing From Vietnam War Accounted For
- Deer Jet to Operate World's First VVIP 787 Boeing Business Jet
- Pan Am Academy Announces ATP-CTP With Type Rating Summer Tuition Credits
- Carleton Offering UAV/Drone Professional Short Course With NAV CANADA
Get Comprehensive, Real-Time, 24/7 coverage of the latest aviation and aerospace stories anytime, at aero-news.net. And be sure to join us again next week for the next edition of "Airborne Unlimited" here on Aero-TV. Thanks for watching. See you, again, tomorrow!
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