What Do a Broomstick and Spaceship Have In Common?

Right after the historic launch of SpaceX’s manned Dragon module, a second equally impressive feat of engineering was accomplished: the successful return of the rocket’s main engine to Earth as it landed on a barge in the Atlantic. But what makes this so difficult?

Rockets are notoriously difficult to master, and up until recently we only used them as a one-way tool to get to space, then let the motor burn up in the atmosphere after it was spent or attempted to partially recover, depending on the program. SpaceX has created a system that allows the spent rocket stage to perform a controlled re-entry and steer itself to a barge where it lands upright to be taken to land and reused on another launch, sparing a large fraction of the costs of building a new motor each time.

A rocket flies in what engineers call an “inverted pendulum” configuration, it’s like trying to balance a broomstick on your finger except the rocket motors have to make constant adjustments to keep the top of the rocket centered and flying straight. This is much easier said than done safely and reliably. What makes SpaceX’s engineering so spectacular is that they have added a system to perform this inverted balancing act not just on the way up, but when the rocket falls back to Earth in reverse of it’s launch direction. Optimizing a spacecraft for two-way flight is a new, novel and efficient way to continue to improve launch operations in the US, and we’re just getting started.

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