SpaceX showed the landing of the first stage of Falcon 9 breaking the sound barrier

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship toward the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, August 4. The first stage of the rocket then returned to Earth and made a successful landing, which was captured in a 37-second video posted on SpaceX’s social media account X. In the video, you can hear the sonic boom that occurs as the speed decreases while breaking the sound barrier.

Image source: Spacex

«Footage tracking the landing of the Falcon 9 first stage booster and the sonic boom,” SpaceX wrote in a commentary on the video. Sonic booms are a common phenomenon in the atmosphere during the reentry of the Falcon 9’s first stage. The sound occurs when the rocket slows down and crosses the sound barrier.

Tracking footage of Falcon 9’s first stage booster landing and sonic boom pic.twitter.com/HNohw3oCCp

According to SpaceX, Sunday’s mission was the 10th for this particular Falcon 9 first stage. That’s an impressive reuse rate, but it’s a far cry from the company’s record of as many as 22 successful landings. Overall, SpaceX has now completed more than 300 successful first-stage landings on Falcon 9 missions.

The Cygnus spacecraft has delivered more than 4 tons of food, scientific equipment and other cargo to the ISS on its current mission, called NG-21 (Cygnus’ 21st flight to the orbiting laboratory). Unlike Falcon 9 or SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, Cygnus is designed for single use. It will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere after it undocks from the ISS in January 2025.

admin

Share
Published by
admin

Recent Posts

Why DDR5 CUDIMM is a step forward: details and tests

DDR5 memory first hit the market in 2021 with the Intel LGA1700 platform and Alder…

4 hours ago

Why DDR5 CUDIMM is a step forward: details and tests

DDR5 memory first hit the market in 2021 with the Intel LGA1700 platform and Alder…

4 hours ago

Ippon Innova TB 2000 UPS Review: With Pure Sine Wave

Among the UPS with double conversion topology (online), devices for home and office PCs at…

6 hours ago

Ippon Innova TB 2000 UPS Review: With Pure Sine Wave

Among the UPS with double conversion topology (online), devices for home and office PCs at…

6 hours ago

Broadcom Brings Back Free VMware ESXi 8, But Tells No One

Broadcom has resumed the free versions of VMware vSphere Hypervisor, which it stopped distributing in…

6 hours ago

Google has stripped budget smartphones of full Android 15 support, increasing memory requirements

Google has specified the requirements for devices applying for certification to use the Android 15…

6 hours ago