Recovered Falcon 9 completes full-duration engine firing for the first time.
Less than two months after flying into space and safely landing on the droneship, the JCSAT-14 Falcon 9 first stage successfully completed a full-duration engine firing yesterday, July 28, at SpaceX’s test facility in McGregor, Texas. This marks the first time a recovered rocket’s engines have been reignighted
Securely fastened to its test stand, F9-024 fired its nine Merlin 1D engines for over two minutes and 27 seconds, the full-duration the first stage fires in flight. Attached to the top of the vehicle was a test rig designed to simulate dynamic pressures encountered in flight. The rig exerts the same force on the top of the vehicle that it would encounter by the atmosphere while ascending. F9-024 took the most damage of any of the five stages SpaceX has recovered. As such, the company is using it as a technological benchmark vehicle, showing engineers what the limits of the vehicles are in order to maximize the lifespan of the boosters. The JCSAT-14 first stage will not be the first Falcon 9 to be reflown; that distinction will go to F9-023, the first stage from April’s CRS-8 mission. Hans Koenigsmann, Vice President of flight reliability for SpaceX, mentioned at the CRS-9 launch that the booster is likely to be reflown on a mission in fourth quarter 2016.
