Last Thursday, I drove down to Hawthorne to check out the Falcon 9 booster that was recently put on permanent display outside SpaceX Headquarters. This booster delivered the Orbcomm satellites to low-Earth orbit before becoming the first rocket to touch down on land following an orbital launch last December. Parked on the street around the corner of this Falcon 9's final resting spot is another flown booster that delivered the THAICOM 8 satellite to geostationary orbit last May. Unlike the Orbcomm vehicle—which could've been reused had SpaceX founder Elon Musk not decided to turn this rocket into a museum piece instead—THAICOM's Falcon 9 is presumably too damaged to fly again. (The speed and altitude at which this booster entered Earth's atmosphere and came in for a landing was much faster and higher than that of the Orbcomm launcher...seeing as how THAICOM 8 was sent to an orbit about 23,000 miles above the Earth.) Anyways, here are photos that I took of the two 162-foot-tall boosters. I wonder if SpaceX will ever donate a Falcon 9 to the California Science Center for display with space shuttle Endeavour? We'll see.
LINK: More photos I took of the Falcon 9 rocket at SpaceX Headquarters
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