After “crazy hard” development, SpaceX’s Block 5 rocket has taken flight

Enlarge / The Block 5 version of the Falcon 9 rocket launches on Friday. (credit: SpaceX)

For most watching the Falcon 9 rocket launch on Friday afternoon from Florida, the spectacle did not appear all that different from any SpaceX rocket launch and subsequent droneship landing. But sometimes, looks can be deceiving.

This rocket ascending into space had been almost entirely remade. After eight years of flying the Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX has taken all of the lessons it has learned from 51 flights and engineered them into this new, and probably final, variant of the booster.

For most of this decade, the company’s chief executive officer and lead designer, Elon Musk, has talked a good game about rapid and reusable launch. Now, the Block 5 version of the rocket may finally deliver on these promises. Musk held a teleconference with space reporters on Thursday afternoon, a day before the launch. Although he expressed the usual pre-flight jitters and did not want to take anything for granted, Musk said that after slogging through the Block 5 development process he is now convinced that rockets can be flown, landed, and flown again within 24 hours. “We still need to demonstrate it,” he said. “It’s not like we’ve done it. But it can be done.”