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<ul><li>Space startup <keyword id="12510760" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="spinlaunch" source="Orion">SpinLaunch</keyword> has been working on a new and more sustainable way of launching rockets.</li><li>It tested its first prototype last month and plans to conduct more tests for the final product.</li><li>The <keyword id="12510761" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="suborbital-accelerator" source="Orion">suborbital accelerator</keyword> uses kinetic energy to launch rockets instead of the traditional fuel-based system.</li></ul>Space startup SpinLaunch has developed a prototype of a very unique and different kind of launchpad to shoot rockets into orbit. It’s a <a href="https://www.spinlaunch.com/suborbital#p1" data-type="tilCustomLink">suborbital accelerator</a> that’s even taller than the Statue of Liberty and looks like a giant-sized rolling tape. What happens inside is electric-powered kinetic energy spinning the rocket and flinging it up to orbit.<br /><br />This will be different from the traditional way of launching fuel-based rockets vertically, and it’s also said to be a less expensive and environmentally sustainable alternative, according to SpinLaunch. The company successfully demonstrated its first prototype of its suborbital accelerator last month near Spaceport America in New Mexico.<br /><br /><strong>How does it work<br /></strong><br />The suborbital accelerator features the largest span vacuum chamber inside which there’s a massive rotating arm that uses kinetic energy to spin the rocket several times the speed of sound and then lets go of it so the projectile is flung into the air, according to a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/09/spinlaunch-completes-first-test-flight-of-alternative-rocket.html">report</a> by CNBC. At its first launch, SpinLaunch said the suborbital accelerator successfully propelled a test vehicle at supersonic speeds. This prototype used only around 20% of the accelerator’s power and touched an altitude of tens of thousands of feet, the report added.<br /><br /><strong>Only a testbed<br /></strong><br />The suborbital accelerator is only a test-bed for the final product, the <keyword id="12510763" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="orbital-launch-system" source="Orion">Orbital Launch System</keyword>. The company plans on conducting regular test flights with a variety of vehicles and different launch vehicles throughout 2022. It plans to conduct around 30 suborbital test flights from Spaceport America. As for the final Orbital Launch System, it is still in the works and there’s no confirmed launch timeline for it yet. <br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:</strong><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/samsung-galaxy-s22-series-launch-date-specifications-and-everything-you-need-to-know/articleshow/87643657.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Samsung Galaxy S22 series: launch date, specifications and everything you need to know</a><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/enterprise/news/disney-ceo-bob-chapek-confirms-the-company-will-build-its-own-metaverse/articleshow/87641073.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">After Facebook, Disney wants to build its own metaverse</a><br />

This space startup wants to slingshot rockets into orbit

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360701" type="DEFINITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="spacex">SpaceX</keyword> is building a facility in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-site-boca-chica-village-home-buyouts-faa-hazards-2020-10">Boca Chica</a>, located at the southeastern tip of <keyword id="15710" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="texas">Texas</keyword>, to develop, build, and launch fully reusable Starship-Super Heavy rockets.</li><li>The company is focused on suborbital up-and-down flights of prototypes for now, but it eventually plans to launch Starships to orbit and land them back in Texas as soon as 2021.</li><li>However, SpaceX needs <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-super-heavy-new-faa-environmental-review-launch-license-2020-7">Federal Aviation Administration approval</a> for any major deviations from an exhaustive site plan finalized in July 2014.</li><li>The <keyword id="137685" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="FAA">FAA</keyword> on Monday quietly posted three new written reevaluation documents that spell out SpaceX's latest plans — one of which also documents concerns flagged by state and federal agencies.</li><li>The agency also launched a new "<a href="https://www.faa.gov/space/stakeholder_engagement/spacex_starship/public_involvement_opportunities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">community engagement portal</a>" for the public to follow and weigh in on SpaceX's Starship-Super Heavy project.</li></ul><p>The <keyword id="50977" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Federal-Aviation-Administration">Federal Aviation Administration</keyword> has published several key documents and a new website tied to SpaceX's future in <keyword id="8136052" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Boca-Chica">Boca Chica</keyword>, Texas.</p><p>The aerospace company is moving briskly at the site to develop, build, and launch a nearly 400-foot-tall launcher called Starship-Super Heavy. If the system — a steel spaceship and rocket booster — is realized as founder Elon Musk has envisioned, it could reduce the cost of access to low-Earth orbit by about 1,000-fold, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-one-million-starship-rocket-launches-commercial-international-launches-2020-1">revolutionize travel</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-dearmoon-crew-japanese-astronaut-soichi-noguchi-yusaku-maezawa-2020-9">send people to the moon</a>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-elon-musk-free-mars-colony-constitution-space-law-legality-2020-10">maybe help populate Mars</a>.</p><p>But while SpaceX privately owns its <keyword id="169224" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="South-Texas">South Texas</keyword> launch and development site, the Elon Musk-founded aerospace company has strayed far from its original plans.</p><p>In July 2014, the company completed a years-long environmental impact statement. The document described how SpaceX would use the site as a commercial spaceport to launch a Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy rocket roughly once per month. Any major deviations from that plan must be approved by the FAA.</p><p>Those deviations have most frequently arrived as written reevaluations. The FAA is not required to publish the documents, but the agency occasionally does so to its <a href="https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/environmental/nepa_docs/review/launch/spacex_texas_launch_site_environmental_impact_statement/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a> for SpaceX's project. </p><p>On Monday night, the FAA posted three new written reevaluation documents, which we've embedded at the end of this story: addendums from <a href="https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20416089-november_2019_addendum" target="_blank" rel="noopener">November 2019</a> and <a href="https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20416088-june_2020_addendum_to_may_2019" target="_blank" rel="noopener">June 2020</a> to a prior stor written reevaluation, plus a new reevaluation from <a href="https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20416090-wr_for_spacex_construction_508" target="_blank" rel="noopener">May 2020</a>.</p><p>The agency also launched a new Starship-Super Heavy project <a href="https://www.faa.gov/space/stakeholder_engagement/spacex_starship/public_involvement_opportunities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a> over the weekend to involve the public in its review of SpaceX's plans to fly the vehicles to orbit from Boca Chica.</p><h2>What the new FAA documents contain</h2><div type="image" title="spacex starship mars rocket prototype serial number 5 sn5 150 meter test launch flight raptor engine drone video boca chica village beach texas august 4 2020 twitter elon musk EexYPnPU0AEqLUI" height="1089" width="2048" msid="79382060" hostid="261"></div><p>The documents detail SpaceX's plans to fly <keyword id="1611690" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Starship">Starship</keyword> prototypes on suborbital, up-and-down flights from Boca Chica, as well as what potential environmental impacts those plans may cause.</p><p>The FAA believes such activity falls within scope of SpaceX's original plans because the company said it may fly "a variety of reusable suborbital launch vehicles" from the site (though it didn't specify how big the vehicles might be, how frequently they'd lift off, or even which fuels they'd use).</p><p>The addendums formally cover much of what is already known about the launch site and SpaceX's plans. Such information comes from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-rocket-site-boca-chica-texas-faa-written-reevaluation-2019-8">prior FAA reevaluation documents</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-mars-rocket-spaceport-flyover-pictures-boca-chica-texas-2020-7">aerial photos</a>, SpaceX fans documenting the company's progress and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-starship-rocket-prototype-launch-texas-2020-8">test launches</a>, and statements from Musk himself.</p><p>For example, the November 2019 addendum revises a 2-3 year suborbital test program for Starship flights approved in May 2019. The addendum calls for a schedule of more incremental test flights, and with more Starship prototypes. It also swaps an ambitious flight to 100 kilometers (62 miles) — what many consider the edge of space — for a flight up to 30 kilometers (18.6 miles). (These numbers have since shifted again, though, initially to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-filed-to-launch-starship-prototype-2020-7">20 kilometers [12.5 miles] in July</a> and then, as Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1309910946219876353" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a> in September, to 15 kilometers [9.3 miles].)</p><p>The June 2020 addendum edits SpaceX's Starship test plans again, calling for a revision to the layout of the company's beachside launch site (below), which it calls the Vertical Launch Area.</p><div type="image" title="spacex starship launch site boca chica texas may 2020 written reevaluation environmental impact statement wr eis drawing diagram 1" height="735" width="1289" msid="79382062" hostid="261"></div><p>Specifically, SpaceX requested permission to build a new launch mount and an extra suborbital test pad — just in case another <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-rocket-prototype-explosion-fireball-boca-chica-texas-2020-5">one of its Starship prototypes catastrophically explodes</a> and damages the primary pad, as happened on May 29, 2020.</p><p>"This anomaly caused damage to the test pad, which halted testing operations until repairs are completed," the addendum says. "With a redundant test pad, SpaceX would be able to continue testing operations concurrent with repairing a damaged pad."</p><p>The June 2020 addendum also provides a more detailed look at how SpaceX's environmental impact has shifted since abandoning Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy rockets from Boca Chica and committing to Starship. </p><p>One section covers its anticipated effects on nearby wetlands, another deals with noise. Yet another estimates the amount of climate-warming emissions SpaceX's suborbital test program is likely to generate per year, since the system burns methane (a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide) with oxygen. A table combines test-firings of prototypes and suborbital "hop" launches to estimate nearly 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions.</p><p>But the most important document of the bunch is the written reevaluation signed by the FAA on May 22. The file spans 26 pages, was required for SpaceX to receive its <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6998632-Final-License-and-Orders-SpaceX-Starship.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suborbital launch license</a> from the FAA on May 28, and incorporates concerns from state and federal environmental agencies.</p><p>In the reevaluation, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the US Fish and Wildlife Service <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-site-boca-chica-village-home-buyouts-faa-hazards-2020-10">took issue</a> with several aspects of SpaceX's plans and ongoing activities. Those criticisms targeted the "fluid nature" of the company's construction projects, excessive road closures to Boca Chica Beach (which Brownsville locals prize), around-the-clock work that may affect nocturnal threatened or endangered species, prototype explosions, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starhopper-rocket-launch-wildfires-texas-2019-7">sprawling wildfires</a> the company has triggered.</p><p>The FAA responded to each concern in the document, ultimately determining "there are no significant environmental changes, and that all pertinent conditions and requirements of the prior approval have been met or will be met" with SpaceX's suborbital test-flight plans.</p><h2>But Starship can't yet launch to orbit</h2><div type="image" title="Starship Launch Animation _ South Texas.2019 10 08 12_40_42" height="375" width="900" msid="79382063" hostid="261"></div><p>However, SpaceX does not yet have the FAA's go-ahead to launch any Starships to orbit from Boca Chica.</p><p>In its replies to concerns noted by other agencies — some of which call for a new EIS, which could take years to complete (an eternity in Musk time) — the agency repeatedly noted it is working with SpaceX to draft an "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-new-faa-environmental-review-assessment-impact-statement-texas-2020-7">environmental review</a>" of those plans.</p><p>The agency has since announced SpaceX is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-super-heavy-new-faa-environmental-review-launch-license-2020-7">pursuing an environmental assessment</a>. The move could save SpaceX valuable time in getting FAA approval to fly Starship to orbit — but only if the agency determines such a program won't have impacts too different from plans spelled out in its original EIS from July 2014. If the impacts are significantly different, SpaceX may face an exhaustive new impact statement.</p><p>"The FAA continues to work with SpaceX to finalize its draft description of its proposed operations," an agency spokesperson told Business Insider in September. "The agency does not have an expected date of concluding this action."</p><p>Over the weekend, however, the agency published a "<a href="https://www.faa.gov/space/stakeholder_engagement/spacex_starship/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SpaceX Starship Super Heavy Project</a>" website to share information about the company's orbital plans for Boca Chica, which it calls a "community engagement portal."</p><p>"The portal will provide project information, relevant documents for public review, a link to sign up to receive notifications on public meetings and review, and information to comment on documents as they become available," the spokesperson previously said. (Indeed, the site includes a form to receive email alerts for "<a href="https://www.faa.gov/space/stakeholder_engagement/spacex_starship/public_involvement_opportunities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">public involvement opportunities</a>" related to the project's review.)</p><p>SpaceX did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. The FAA acknowledged Business Insider's queries but could not provide comment in time for publication. (We'll update this story if and when we hear back.)</p><p>The three new FAA documents are embedded below.</p><h2>Read the November 2019 addendum:</h2><h2>Read the June 2020 addendum:</h2><h2>Read the May 2020 written reevaluation:</h2><p><em><strong>Are you a space-industry insider with a story or information to share?</strong> <a href="mailto:dmosher+tips@businessinsider.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Email</a> Dave Mosher, send him a Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/davemosher" target="_blank" rel="noopener">direct message</a>, or consider more secure communication options <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/dave-mosher" target="_blank" rel="noopener">listed here</a>.</em></p>

New FAA documents reveal SpaceX's latest plans for launching Starship prototypes on suborbital flights from South Texas — and potential hurdles to orbit

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Blue Origin, the commercial spaceflight company founded by Amazon entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, claims to have flown and landed the world's first truly reusable suborbital rocket.</p><p>"Rockets have always been expendable. Not anymore," Bezos wrote in a <a href="https://www.blueorigin.com/news">blog post</a>. "Now safely tucked away at our launch site in West Texas is the rarest of beasts, a used rocket."</p><p>The&#xa0;New Shephard rocket lifted off&#xa0;from Blue Origin's&#xa0;launch facility in Van Horn, Texas, on Nov. 23, 2015, reached about 2,800mph, and flew to more than&#xa0;62 miles above the ground, the company said in a <a href="&lt;iframe%20width=%22800%22%20height=%22450%22%20src=%22https://www.youtube.com/embed/9pillaOxGCo?rel=0%22%20frameborder=%220%22%20allowfullscreen>&lt;/iframe>">press release</a>.</p><p>After deploying a space capsule, the rocket then plummeted&#xa0;back toward the ground, reignited its booster, and - in a world first - gently and safely touched down in the middle of a landing target.</p><p>Rockets cost millions of dollars and are normally lost after each launch. So a design&#xa0;that could be refueled&#xa0;over and over again would completely change spaceflight by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-and-elon-musk-have-changed-spaceflight-2015-4" target="_parent">dramatically decreasing the cost of launches</a>.&#xa0;Blue Origin seems to have done this for the first time ever, at least for suborbital rockets&#xa0;- launchers that&#xa0;fly in&#xa0;a high, dramatic arc and&#xa0;could provide paying passengers with a few minutes of zero-gravity play time, but can't put a spacecraft into orbit.</p><p>SpaceX is trying a similar feat with larger, more powerful rockets than could&#xa0;accelerate a spacecraft fast enough to break the chains of gravity and circle the Earth. But that company has, so far, not succeeded.</p><p>Watch a&#xa0;video of Blue Origin's&#xa0;historic test, below. ("When you watch the video you'll see that we took the liberty of engineering all the drama out of the landing," Bezos wrote in his post.)</p><p><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">We'll be updating this story as we learn more.</p><p class="tagline">Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos Expeditions.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-falcon-9-reusable-rocket-2015-4">How Elon Musk and SpaceX plan to drastically reduce the cost of space flight</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="RoYjFmdDqzlnykrwWfoldbxWYwdvQpBh" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Jeff Bezos just launched and landed the world's first reusable suborbital rocket

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360701" type="DEFINITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="spacex">SpaceX</keyword> has filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission related to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starhopper-launch-video-youtube-live-video-feed-2019-8">experimental launches</a> of its reusable <keyword id="1611690" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Starship">Starship</keyword> rocket system.</li><li>The filing requests permission to track and communicate with Starship prototypes as they fly up to 12 1/2 miles, or 20 kilometers, into the air from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-mars-rocket-spaceport-flyover-pictures-boca-chica-texas-2020-7">SpaceX's rocket-development facility</a> in <keyword id="8136052" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Boca-Chica">Boca Chica</keyword>, Texas, between August and February.</li><li>SpaceX earned a <keyword id="6356110" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="launch">launch</keyword> license from the Federal Aviation Administration on May 28 to fly the vehicles, but the company, founded by <keyword id="6355315" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="elon-musk">Elon Musk</keyword>, also needs the FCC's permission.</li><li>Musk recently said he still hoped to launch the first humans to Mars aboard a Starship rocket in mid-2024.</li></ul><p>SpaceX hopes to launch prototypes of its Starship rocket more than a dozen miles high within the next seven months, according to a <a href="https://fcc.report/ELS/Space-Exploration-Technologies-Corp-SpaceX/1041-EX-ST-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filing</a> with the Federal Communications Commission.</p><p>Elon Musk, the aerospace company's founder and CEO, is urgently racing to develop Starship, <a href="https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/">a fully reusable rocket system</a> that is designed to one day <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-spacex-blue-origin-design-lunar-landers-2020-5">land on the moon for NASA</a> and take up to 100 people to Mars at a time.</p><p>In early June — shortly after SpaceX successfully <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launches-historic-rocket-mission-nasa-astronauts-demo-2-2020-5">launched</a> two astronauts to the International <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">Space</keyword> Station using a different rocket — Musk <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-email-spacex-employees-accelerate-progress-starship-rocket-report-2020-6">reportedly</a> urged employees to shift their focus to Starship. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-mars-rocket-spaceport-flyover-pictures-boca-chica-texas-2020-7">Aerial photos</a> also show a frenzied increase in activity at the company's rocket development site in Boca Chica, Texas.</p><p>Now the company has filed a request to the FCC to use certain radio frequencies while launching Starship prototypes up to 12 1/2 miles, or 20 kilometers, into the air. The filing, posted Thursday, specifies that launch operations would occur between August 18 and February 18.</p><p>The Federal Aviation Administration on May 28 awarded SpaceX <a href="https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/licenses_permits/media/Final_%20License%20and%20Orders%20SpaceX%20Starship%20Prototype%20LRLO%2020-119)lliu1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a launch license</a> for suborbital flights. SpaceX can't feasibly fly its Starship prototypes, however, until the FCC grants it permission to use frequencies required to track and communicate with them. (The FCC is typically quick to grant such permission to SpaceX.)</p><h2>Proving a reusable steel rocket ship can fly and land hasn't been easy</h2><p><div type="image" title="spacex starship mars moon rocket factory launch site boca chica south texas june 17 2020 copyright rgv aerial photography licensed business insider 1 wm" height="2000" width="3000" msid="77010052" hostid="261"></div></p><p>A full-scale 16-story Starship prototype has yet to fly, though a previous and shorter version of the rocket — known as Starhopper — successfully <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starhopper-launch-video-youtube-live-video-feed-2019-8">launched 500 feet high and landed</a> in 2019.</p><p>Since then, more advanced yet still early iterations of Starship prototypes have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-rocket-prototype-explosion-fireball-boca-chica-texas-2020-5">failed and were obliterated</a> during testing, typically when engineers filled the rockets with inert liquid nitrogen to test the limits of their integrity.</p><p>During a test-firing of recent Starship prototype called SN4 in Boca Chica on May 29, the vehicle <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-rocket-prototype-explosion-fireball-boca-chica-texas-2020-5">spectacularly exploded</a>. The failure happened the day before the astronauts <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronauts-doug-hurley-bob-behnken-biography-spacex-demo2-2020-5">Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley</a> rode the company's Crew Dragon spaceship <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launches-historic-rocket-mission-nasa-astronauts-demo-2-2020-5">to the International Space Station</a> with the help of a different SpaceX rocket, Falcon 9. (That launcher successfully flew 85 missions before sending Behnken and Hurley into space.)</p><p><div type="image" title="spacex" height="1440" width="2880" msid="77010053" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Such a string of failures, however, is anything but unexpected, as SpaceX saw with the development of core technologies for its Falcon 9 system. Musk has also said the company may need to build about <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-rocket-prototype-explosion-fireball-boca-chica-texas-2020-5">20 large Starship prototypes</a> before SpaceX can attempt to launch one into orbit.</p><p>Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1268780398047137792" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confirmed</a> on June 4 that he still hoped to launch the first crew to Mars in a Starship vehicle in mid-2024 — ostensibly as the start of an effort to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-plans-1-million-people-to-mars-by-2050-2020-1">populate the red planet</a>.</p><p>Though SpaceX is licensed to launch suborbital rockets from Boca Chica, the Border Report recently <a href="https://www.borderreport.com/hot-topics/exclusive-faa-is-investigating-south-texas-launch-facility-after-change-in-rocket-tests-by-spacex/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> that the company would face a new environmental analysis with the FAA before flying prototypes to orbit.</p><p>Business Insider requested details about the nature and timing of that assessment from the FAA on July 9, and an agency representative acknowledged receipt of our questions. The FAA, however, has yet to provide answers to the inquiries.</p><p><em>This story has been updated.</em></p>

A new SpaceX filing with the FCC suggests Starship rocket prototypes may fly more than 12 miles above Texas within the next 7 months

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Elon Musk and his rocket company, SpaceX, are on the cusp of something huge.<p>On March 30, SpaceX will try to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-revolutionary-recycled-booster-launch-2017-3">fire off a used rocket booster </a>- the biggest and most expensive part of its Falcon 9 launch system - and land it safely so it can be reused once more.</p><p>Ordinarily, boosters cost tens of millions of dollars to build, but always sink into the ocean or crash into the ground after helping to deliver a payload into orbit.</p><p>Not SpaceX boosters - those can touch down on land or on a ship at sea.</p><p>Musk and his band of engineers have made this look easy, with eight such landings since December 2015. It is <em>not</em> easy, but you don't need to take our word for it. Instead, just play "<a href="https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/76866912/" target="_blank">SpaceX Falcon 9 Lander</a>", a free retro-style video game created by a user of MIT Media Lab's project "Scratch".</p><p>Your goal? Land SpaceX's booster on a drone ship without blowing it up.</p><p>&#xa0;</p><p>To navigate the rocket, use a keyboard's arrow keys (or the letters WASD). The up-arrow controls the rocket's thrusters; tapping the left- or right-arrow keys helps line up the rocket to land on the ship.</p><p>If you conserve too much fuel, you'll come in too hot and crash. If you burn too much fuel, you'll fall out of the sky and crash. Thrust too much to the left or right, and you'll tip the rocket and crash. And if you veer off-course - you guessed it - you'll crash.</p><p>This game is nowhere near as difficult as actually landing a rocket at sea, of course, even though Falcon 9 boosters use artificial intelligence to do so.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>However, it helped us appreciate how hard SpaceX engineers must have worked to get it right.<p>It took them many years and several failed attempts to land a Falcon 9 booster on a ship <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-rocket-landing-ocean-success-2016-4">on April 8, 2016</a> - the same one that will be re-used for Thursday's launch. If the used launcher works this time - and lands itself once again - experts say it could be "potentially revolutionary" in reducing the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-rocket-cargo-price-by-weight-2016-6">extreme cost</a> of sending satellites, cargo, and people into space.</p><p>The game also gives us respect for the folks at Blue Origin. That rocket company, started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has also recently mastered reusable rocketry. (Though their current launch vehicle, the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-space-launch-and-landing-you-didnt-hear-about-this-weekend-2016-4">New Shepard</a>, is a smaller one designed for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blue-origin-new-shepard-spaceship-inside-images-2017-3">suborbital space tourism</a>.)</p><p>So what are you waiting for? Give the game a try at <a href="https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/76866912/">its home page on "Scratch"</a> and try not to drive yourself mad.</p><p><em>Kelly Dickerson wrote a previous version of this post.</em></p><p><em>Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company, Bezos Expeditions.</em></p><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:75%"></div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-dragon-2-capsule-space-tourists-moon-2017-3">SpaceX will use this capsule to slingshot two civilians around the moon</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="9teXE0YTE6HgqlmH9oDjTkARfO_AYLXW" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "suborbital rocket launcher" and got 5 results

This space startup wants to slingshot rockets into orbit

Marcia Sekhose

New FAA documents reveal SpaceX's latest plans for launching Starship prototypes on suborbital flights from South Texas — and potential hurdles to orbit

Dave Mosher

Jeff Bezos just launched and landed the world's first reusable suborbital rocket

Kelly Dickerson,Dave Mosher

A new SpaceX filing with the FCC suggests Starship rocket prototypes may fly more than 12 miles above Texas within the next 7 months

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

Trying to land a SpaceX rocket in this simple video game could drive you mad

Dave Mosher

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