Saturday, July 14, 2018

SpaceX’s boat for catching rocket parts is now sporting a much bigger net

<em>SpaceX’s fairing recovery vessel, Mr. Steven</em>

SpaceX’s specialized boat aimed at catching falling rocket parts just got a sizable upgrade. The vessel, called Mr. Steven, now boasts an even more massive net, one that’s four times the size of the one it had before. That larger surface area should help increase the chances of Mr. Steven actually making a catch, which it hasn’t been able to do.

Mr. Steven is specifically focused on catching the nose cone of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket following a launch. That’s the bulbous structure that sits at the top of the rocket, covering the satellite during the flight. Once the rocket is in space, the nose cone, or payload fairing, splits in half and the pieces fall back to Earth. Typically this hardware isn’t recovered, but SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has...

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