HOW AN SPACE X FALCON 9 reusable rocket works? |spacex falcon 9 rocket || learn from the base

Learn from the base · December 19, 2020 · 5:24 · English · Documentary

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Video from the channel Learn from the base about Falcon 9, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 5:24. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

What it's about

Explanatory animation on how the Falcon 9 works: its components, the sequence of a launch to the International Space Station with a Dragon capsule, and the controlled return of the first stage.

Historical context

The video presents the Falcon 9 as a two-stage, medium-lift, partially reusable launch vehicle designed and built by SpaceX, a company founded in 2002 by Elon Musk to cut the cost of space transport. Reusability allows the rocket's most expensive parts to fly again.

Key facts

The first stage carries nine Merlin engines; each produces 845 kN at sea level and 981 kN in vacuum. According to the animation, the rocket exceeds the speed of sound 1 min 10 s after liftoff, and the first stage shuts down its engines about 158 s after launch. The Dragon, in cargo and crew variants, communicates with the station over UHF and stays docked for about four weeks while it is unloaded and reloaded. To come back, the stage has eight cold-gas nitrogen thrusters in two groups of four, four grid fins, responsible for a landing precision of about 10 m, and engines that can be relit; navigation combines an inertial system with GPS. The four landing legs, made of carbon fiber and aluminum, span about 18 m deployed, and the assembly weighs less than 2,100 kg.