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Unit 21
Science and Technology
Cheaper Access to Space The idea of reusable spaceplanes has been around since the beginning of the Space Age. 1.
On March 30th,
2017, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched a geosynchronous communication satellite at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center 5
in Florida. It is partially reusable, with the first stage of the rocket capable of re-entering the atmosphere and landing back vertically after separating from the second stage. The first stage for this mission had previously supported a space station cargo resupply launch for NASA in 2016 and was later
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recovered. 2. Founded in 2002, SpaceX is the innovative and ambitious private aerospace manufacturer established by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, now its CEO and also CEO of Tesla Motors. Musk believes a fully and rapidly 15
reusable rocket is a breakthrough in substantially reducing the cost of space access. Compared with most conventional rockets, which are designed to fly and burn up on reentry, Space X rockets can withstand reentry and land back on earth and fly again. Imagine
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that each new space rocket costs about the same as Falcon 9, but can fly multiple times and conduct tens of thousands of flights over its lifetime. 3.
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