The video depicts how SpaceX has been attempting to recover the fairings from the Falcon 9 rocket with a net-carrying ship, named ‘Mr. Steven’, in hopes of reusing them. In the latest test, it narrowly missed the net.
The fairing splashed down in the ocean right next to Mr. Steven, riding the whitewater wake generated by the speedy boat. Mr. Steven’s broad net appeared to snag the edge of the fairing’s parafoil.
The test appeared to take place in the Pacific Ocean, just off the California coast. A helicopter lifted the payload fairing off the deck of a different ship, carried it high into the sky, and then dropped it, as shown in the video. Mr. Steven tried to chase it down and came agonizingly close to plucking it.
Payload fairings are the protective nose cones that surround satellites during launch. Each fairing for SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket costs about $6 million, company founder and CEO Elon Musk has said, which explains the drive to catch, and then reuse, them.
In this regard, SpaceX routinely lands and reflies Falcon 9 first stages. Falcon 9 fairings fall back to Earth in two pieces, each of which has small thrusters for steering and a descent-slowing parafoil. (The recent catch test involved a fairing half, not a full fairing.)
The long-term goal of such activities is to cut the cost of spaceflight significantly — enough to make Mars colonization and other ambitious exploration feats economically feasible.
Mr. Steven has gone after fairing halves multiple times during operational orbital launches but has not yet caught one.
