Musk wants to absorb upper rocket stage by using ‘giant party balloon’
Leave it to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to make bold statements or come up with strange ideas. Musk has announced it plans to capture the second stage of likely the Falcon 9 rocket by using a “giant party balloon.”
In a couple messages On Twitter, Elon Musk has announced that the huge balloon will be deployed to slow the upper rocket stage after it is knocked off and falls back to Earth. When and how the balloon will be deployed and with which rocket, Musk did not say. This is believed to be the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket. With this rocket and with the Falcon Heavy, SpaceX has so far successfully landed only the first rocket stage on Earth.
To date, SpaceX has successfully landed a Falcon 9 first stage stage a total of 23 times, and 11 of those have been reused in subsequent launches. The ‘catch’ of the rocket stages uses a landing motor that is ignited at the right time, so that the stairs can make a soft and safe landing, for example on the drone ships used by SpaceX that are equipped with a landing platform.
According to Musk The second rocket stage already has an engine ignition during its return to Earth, in order to drop the stage at a certain point in the ocean where there are no islands or ships. In order to actually catch the rocket stage, the landing must be closer to shore and a special craft must be deployed, such as the boat called Mr. Steven previously deployed to capture the nose cone of a Falcon 9 rocket.
Catching the nose cones and the second rocket stage are two big challenges for SpaceX. In contrast to the first rocket stage, being able to accommodate and reuse the second rocket stage requires, among other things, a complete heat shield, propulsion for the return flight and special communication systems. SpaceX has already made attempts to accommodate the nose cone of some Falcon 9 rockets, but so far they have failed.
The landing of two lower rocket stages after the Falcon Heavy launch on February 6