CEO Elon Musk called this SpaceX’s “most difficult launch ever.”
In a December 2018 video, SpaceX showed what the fairing-catching boat looked like and explained its purpose.
The fairing halves each have a set of guidance systems and parachutes, as they re-enter the Earth's atmosphere at multiple times the speed of sound. Even though this is the first time the boat caught a fairing half, SpaceX has been able to fish the fairings out of the water on close misses. Reusing the fairings on future launches is key to SpaceX's cost saving goals. Fairings represent about 10% of the cost of a rocket, the company has said. With a Falcon 9 rocket coming with a price tag starting at $62 million, that means fairings cost about $6 million.
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