SpaceX CEO Elon Musk plans to land a Falcon 9 rocket on a football field-sized floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean as soon as December. The launch pad is apart of the space company’s plan to decrease space travel cost, making it more likely for humans to colonize other planets or the moon.
“Reusability is really the critical breakthrough needed in rocketry to take things to the next level,” Musk said during the webcast at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s AeroAstro Centennial Symposium.
Musk compares the expensive disposable space capsules to the airplane industry, suggesting the importance of a reusable system.
“Imagine if an aircraft were single-use. Then how many people would fly?” Musk said. “The fly rate would be really low. To buy a 747 is like $250 million, or maybe $300 million, and you’d need two of them for a round trip.” Musk believes a reusable rockets will save money and make space travel more accessible.
The launch will be a big step in the private space company’s mission to develop a reusable rock system and capsule. The Falcon 9 will land on a platform 300 feet long and 170 feet wide. The landing platform, which is being manufactured in Louisiana, will be equipped with engines that can be used to keep the platform in position. Musk believes the land will be “tricky” due to large rollers and GPS errors.
“There are a lot of launches that will occur over the next year,” Musk said. “I think it’s quite likely that one of those flights, we’ll be able to land and re-fly, so I think we’re quite close,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk reports Space.com.