** The Official Space Flight Thread - The Space Station and Beyond **


SpaceX successfully test fired the first stage of F9R—an advanced prototype for the world's first reusable rocket—in preparation for its first test flight in the coming weeks. Unlike airplanes, a rocket's thrust increases with altitude; F9R generates just over a million pounds of thrust at sea level but gets up to 1.5 million pounds of thrust in the vacuum of space.

The F9R testing program is the next step towards reusability following completion of the Grasshopper program last year. Future testing, including that in New Mexico, will be conducted using the first stage of a Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) as shown here, which is essentially a Falcon 9 v1.1 first stage with legs. F9R test flights in New Mexico will allow us to test at higher altitudes than we are permitted for at our test site in Texas, to do more with unpowered guidance and to prove out landing cases that are more-flight like.
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Meanwhile at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana:



Sentinel-1A is the first in a fleet of ESA satellites poised to deliver the wealth of data and imagery that are central to Europe's Copernicus programme.

Designed as a two-satellite constellation -- Sentinel-1A and -1B -- the Sentinel-1 mission uses an advanced radar instrument to provide an all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery of Earth's surface. The data will benefit numerous services, including the monitoring of Arctic sea-ice extent, the surveillance of the marine environment, the monitoring of land surface for motion risks and mapping to support humanitarian aid and crisis situations.
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