SpaceX and NASA Learned to Land on Mars by Studying Falcon 9 Landings
By Brian Wang
On September 29, 2013, SpaceX performed the first supersonic retropropulsion (SRP) maneuver to decelerate the reentry of the first stage of their Falcon 9 rocket.
NASA asked if their EDL (entry, descent, and landing) engineers could watch and study SpaceX’s data, and SpaceX agreed. Beginning in 2014, NASA and SpaceX worked together for three years. They…
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