In its persistent efforts to reduce the cost of spaceflight, SpaceX is getting closer to catching the payload fairings from its rockets for reuse.
The company shared photos on Twitter Thursday of a fairing half being carried to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean by a parafoil. SpaceX has yet to successfully catch the payload fairing out of the sky, but it’s nearly on target.
The tweet said the closest half was about 150 feet from SpaceX’s 205-foot-long, net-equipped recovery ship, Mr. Steven.
The fairings that splashed down Thursday were used in last week’s launch of Iridium-6/GRACE-FO.
Each fairing has a price tag of about $6 million.