Christmas comes early for SpaceX! Falcon 9 returns to flight with Orbcomm OG2 mission

SpaceX returned its Falcon 9 rocket to service this evening with the Orbcomm OG2 mission; it then completed a successful landing of the rocket’s first stage – some nine minutes later at nearby Landing Zone-1. Photo Credit: Jared Haworth / SpaceFlight Insider
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) got an early Christmas present of sorts at 8:29 EST, Dec 21 (01:29 GMT, Dec. 22), when the firm’s “Full Thrust” Falcon 9 (v1.2) lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 30 in Florida. The holiday surprises did not end there, however.

The launch got underway at 8:29 p.m. EST (01:29 GMT) at the very start of a five-minute launch window. Photo Credit: Jared Haworth / SpaceFlight Insider
Tonight’s flight saw 11 Orbcomm OG2 satellites take to the skies on what should be the final Cape flight of the year.
This mission marked a critical “Return to Flight” for the Falcon 9. When the last Falcon 9 v1.1 was launched, it was lost two minutes and 19 seconds into flight when a strut in the rocket’s second stage failed, resulting in a helium tank breaking free and causing the rocket to encounter an “over-pressure” event (the rocket exploded). That mission was launched on June 28, 2015.
For this flight, the launch team went from having a three-hour launch window on the Dec. 19, a one minute window on Dec. 20, to one lasting five minutes tonight. The changing and dynamic situation provided a window into what is required to conduct a launch and potential landing for the F9 booster. The fact that such a historic event was accomplished through adversity was noted by local members of the space community.
“Today clearly placed the exclamation mark on 2015, by closing out another successful year for the Eastern Range in historic fashion,” said Brig. Gen. Wayne Monteith, 45th Space Wing commander and launch decision authority. “This launch and flyback speaks volumes to the hard work this team puts in every single day driving innovation and success. This was a first for us at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and I can’t even begin to describe the excitement the team feels right now having been a part of this historic first-stage rocket landing.”
Perhaps of most interest to long-term SpaceX supporters is the fact that the primary mission of launching ORBCOMM’s fleet of commercial communications satellites was just the tip of the iceberg.
SpaceX CEO and Founder Elon Musk noted that he was planning shortly after tonight’s landing that he was about to head out to LZ-1 and that the mission appeared to have been “perfect”.
“All of the satellites were deployed almost dead center, perfect,” Musk said. “We could not have asked for a better mission or a better day.”
SpaceX had been attempting to have the first stage of the Falcon 9 conduct a controlled landing at sea, either on the water itself or via the company’s Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ships. SpaceX is not one to rest on its past accomplishments and decided to up the ante for this mission – they would shoot to land the first stage at what has been renamed “Landing Zone-1”.
Formerly known under the somewhat unlucky moniker of Space Launch Complex 13, the site was last used almost 40 years ago as a U.S. Air Force rocket and missile test range.
The mission had been tentatively slated to get underway on Dec. 19, but the static test fire took longer than anticipated to complete, pushing the launch to Dec. 20. That date also slipped when, as Musk put it: “Just reviewed mission params w SpaceX team. Monte Carlo runs show tmrw night has a 10% higher chance of a good landing. Punting 24 hrs.”

ORBCOMM is a global provider of what is referred to as “Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions”.
If everything works as Orbcomm has planned, the 11 Sierra Nevada Corporation-produced satellites should have been deployed some 20 minutes after the Falcon 9 booster left the pad at SLC-40. Once there, they will make up the final part of a 17-satellite constellation.
Each of these spacecraft should provide twelve times the level of access to data and up to twice the rate of transmission of the current OG1 fleet already on orbit. As was noted by SpaceX, each of the satellites, should, essentially, be equivalent to six OG1 satellites.

All total the mission lasted some 35 minutes, including the deployment of the satellites – and the landing of the booster. Photo Credit: Jared Haworth / SpaceFlight Insider
While tonight’s flight began with a flicker of light and a familiar roar from SLC-40 at 8:29 p.m., the launch really got underway more than a half hour earlier.
At 34 minutes prior to launch, the Launch Conductor carried out the launch readiness poll, signally the start of the night’s activities.
Four minutes later, RP-1 (rocket grade kerosene) and liquid oxygen (LOX) began loading into the Falcon 9. Some 20 minutes later, the rocket entered a chill phase in preparation for launch.
The Range Safety Officer announced that the range was cleared to support the launch just two minutes prior to the scheduled liftoff. Thirty seconds later, SpaceX’s Launch Director indicated that the mission was cleared to proceed.
At just one second prior to the opening of the launch window, the Flight Control Computer began final pre-flight checks.
Meanwhile, at the same time, the propellant tanks were pressurized. Within milliseconds, the computer ordered the nine Merlin 1D rocket engines – arranged in their “Octaweb” configuration – to ignite.
At 8:29 p.m., more than six months since SpaceX last launched, a new Falcon 9 took to the skies. The booster climbed up through the nighttime skies on a graceful, yet loud, arc.
Roughly one minute into the flight and the Falcon 9 and its payload entered into the region of the atmosphere known as maximum dynamic pressure, or, more commonly referred to as “max-Q”.
Main Engine Cutoff (MECO) and first stage shutdown took place some two minutes and 20 seconds after the rocket had left the pad. The Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket, and the first stage separated from the remainder of the launch vehicle about 4 seconds after MECO took place.
Eleven seconds after staging had occurred, the second stage’s engine came alive, leaving the first stage to carry out its own historic journey.
About four minutes after the Falcon 9 rocket had lifted off the pad, the rocket’s first stage began its boost-back burn with the first stage re-entry burn taking place about four minutes later.
Meanwhile, at about ten minutes into the mission, the second stage’s engine cutoff (SECO) occurred.
When all was said and done, some ten minutes after the “Full Thrust” Falcon 9 rocket had lifted off from the Cape, the booster’s first stage landed at LZ-1. In so doing, it assured itself and SpaceX a place in space flight history.
Although somewhat forgotten in the fact that tonight’s mission marked the RTF for the F9 and that a ground landing was to be attempted – the primary objective of this mission continued.
About 12 minutes after launch, the Falcon 9’s payload fairing, which had shielded the Orbcomm satellites after launch, was jettisoned, exposing the spacecraft to the harsh environment of space for the first time. The satellites themselves began deploying at about 15 minutes into the mission, with the process concluding some five minutes later.
The satellites began deploying their solar arrays just 26 minutes after they had been launched and with just a half hour after the mission had gotten underway, all of the spacecraft had deployed their arrays and were transmitting – marking a successful end to the mission.
The NewSpace firm’s Falcon 9 is now the first rocket to carrying out an orbital satellite delivery mission – and then have its first stage land safely back near the launch site.
According to Musk, the first stage will now be transported to Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A. It likely will not be used on upcoming flights.
When SpaceX demonstrates that it can duplicate this capability and employ it on a routine basis – the space industry will be drastically changed. Whereas, in the past, most launch vehicles were single use and the expensive engines that allowed them to hurl payloads to orbit ended up either at the bottom of an ocean or shattered upon the landscape – the Falcon 9’s first stage components should be able to be refurbished and prepped for future flights. This should have the much-desired effect of drastically lowering the cost of sending spacecraft and payloads to orbit.
The evening’s historic events were noted by fellow reusable rocket entrepreneur and billionaire Jeff Bezos who tweeted: “Congrats @SpaceX on landing Falcon’s suborbital booster stage. Welcome to the club!”
Whereas Bezos’ New Shepard rocket successfully traveled to the edge of space on Nov. 24, tonight’s flight of the Falcon actually delivered a payload to orbit – before returning to the Cape.
Musk noted that each Falcon 9 cost about $60 million to build and an additional $200,000 to fuel – the price of the former is likely to drop as it now appears that each first stage can be reused to some degree.
The billionaire stated at a post-landing teleconference that he believed the landing only had about a 60–70 percent chance of success – and also that the sonic booms, a long-missed sound along the Cape since the end of the shuttle era, were the sound of failure. Musk and many in the area quickly changed that notion as a new sound hit their ears – the sounds of roaring cheers and thunderous applause.

Video Courtesy of SpaceX
Jason Rhian
Jason Rhian spent several years honing his skills with internships at NASA, the National Space Society and other organizations. He has provided content for outlets such as: Aviation Week & Space Technology, Space.com, The Mars Society and Universe Today.
LOL @ Bezos. He has to deliver cargo to the ISS multiple times before he can welcome anybody anywhere.
Congratulations!
Historic.
BLUE ORIGIN DID IT FIRST on 11/23/15, vertical landing from space…..welcome to the club Elon…..here’s the video:
https://youtu.be/9pillaOxGCo
Blue Origin’s rocket does not launch anything into orbital space. It goes up, detaches a little pod, both the rocket and the pod hang for a couple of minutes and then fall back down to Earth for a controlled landing. Impressive, but it’s not powerful enough to send anything into orbit. SpaceX just launched a bunch of satellites into orbit and then return the rocket for a landing. When Blue Origin puts a payload into orbit then I will see them in the same club as SpaceX.
Relevant
http://i.imgur.com/ATkpdAX.png
http://i.imgur.com/g2VIKVC.jpg
Bezos’ Blue Origins new Shepherd did little more than what McDonnell-Douglas’ DC-X Delta Clipper accomplished back in the 1990’s….VTOL rocket. While DC-X only flew to 10,000 feet or so , it proved the tech.
Bezos’ has nothing to crow about until he actually accomplishes more than an up-down test hop. Billionaires are nothing if not arrogant
Something can be historic and not be first (often is). None the less this is the first vertical/propulsive landing of part of an orbit class launch system. BO basically has a technology demonstrator they are leveraging for tourism (nothing against this at all) but not a real workload capable orbit class vehicle. That makes all the difference in the world w.r.t. historic significance. BO is basically just crossing the Karman line (Which you would expect of a technology demonstrator).
Put it another way, what SpaceX has done less than a month later is vastly more than a months work more complex and significance in actual practice.
I’m sorry, X-15 was the first to “land from space” in a controlled fashion.
What “club” are you talking about anyway? The orbital delivery club? Javier, I hope you are aware that Bezos has yet to deliver his first kilogram of payload. He is the one to be welcomed – once he succeeds in doing what others have done already.
Not discounting Blue Origins addition to the space race, I think that Bezo should have been giving Musk and SpaceX a more congratulatory statement, instead of trying to down the accomplishment. I do suspect even ULA will be congratulating SpaceX, as we watch history unfold.
I do feel Musk was pretty bad with his reaction to blue origins landing. If anything I feel this is a reaction to that. Now trying to call the stage1 of the falcon 9 suborbital is technically true, it’s stilla pretty low blow
Musk was at least technically correct, no matter how appropriate or inappropriate you think this was. But Bezos’ remark was simply a stupid one, without any redeeming value.
I’m trying to remember how fast horizontally blue origin was moving before it attempted a landing. Hmmmmm! I’m also trying to remember how far down range blue origin was before it attempted a landing. Hmmmmm! I wonder what club Bezos is talking about?
Anyone know why the bottom third of the booster turns black upon return? I’m pretty sure it was all white prior to launch.
Soot from the RP1 exhaust. For the last two burns the rocket is descending through its engine plume.
Soot may be a contributor, but mostly I think the discoloration comes from re-entry heat scorching the paint. The top as well as bottom third of the F9 1st stage is grey upon landing. The middle third is still white, probably because of a thin coat of ice condensed from airborne moisture by the presence of the LOX oxidizer in its tank. The places on the lower third of the stage that were covered by the landing legs until just before touchdown also stayed white.
It’s all in the tradition of competing capitalists! People who try and do really hard things have a right to their bravado! Both men and their companies have made tremendous accomplishments, unthinkable just a few short years ago. A little friendly jousting just makes for good publicity.
Anyone know if they are going to continue the experiment and relaunch this one? Or take the landed unit and tear it down to find out how it held up?
Hi James,
Rocket will be transported to LC-39A where it will be used to validate the procedure.
Sincerely, Jason Rhian – Editor, SpaceFlight Insider
Congratulations, SpaceX! This is a great first step in useful, economical commercial spaceflight! Of course it is not the be-all and end-all, but rather a partial proof-of-concept step. “Completion” of the POC will be when they refurbish and re-fly a returned booster. That may not happen the next time or the time after that. But it WILL happen! And when it does, and the costs of such operation calculable and advertiseable, then we can begin to truly make space pay and the human exploration and development here to stay! Drawing exact parallels is not possible, but one might compare this event with the jump from the Wright Flyer to the first practical cargo airplane! I know this doesn’t sound like I am excited enough, or that I am diminishing the success! Believe me, this is GREAT, and I was jumping up and down and explaining what was happening to my family and friends!
We all look forward to the next Falcon 9 launch, and landing, as well as the Falcon Heavy/Dragon v2 flight! GO, SPACEX! Happiest of Holidays to all!
DOES ANYONE KNOW AT WHAT ALTITUDE THE 1ST AND 2ND STAGE SEPARATION TOOK PLACE?
Staging occurred at ~70-80km altitude, but the stage coasted up to 200km before falling down.
(But they were showing the altitude and speed parameters live during the webcast, so you can verify the exact altitude during separation there)