No “Surrendering America” Here: Watch SpaceX Test Fire New Falcon F9R First Stage

Image Credit: SpaceX/Youtube

SpaceX released the following statement with the video Friday evening. Several hours later, FOX News ran a special segment “Surrendering America” which focused in part on the decline of the American space program.  Perhaps they should have checked youtube first.

SpaceX statement:

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.