SpaceX Rocket Successfully Lands After Launching Satellites

The aerospace manufacturer successfully landed its Falcon 9 booster rocket back on Earth at Cape Canaveral, Florida, after using it to ship 11 ORBCOMM satellites into space.

According to SpaceX, Falcon 9 made history in 2012 when it delivered Dragon into the correct orbit for rendezvous with the International Space Station, making SpaceX the first commercial company ever to visit the station. Landing a first-stage rocket back to Earth is part of SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s goal of reusing rockets in order to reduce the cost of space travel.

The mission began with a 34-minute countdown to lift-off, and the first stage of the rocket returned to land 10 minutes after the launch. As the rocket’s boosters burst back to life, all but stopping its quick descent, the vehicle touched down harmlessly on the tarmac.

After deploying the OG2 satellites in a low-Earth orbit, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket landed back to the ground.

After three failed attempts at a rocket landing, it marks a major victory for SpaceX and CEO Elon Musk.

But as I wrote then, Musk was also quick to point out – on Twitter, where billionaires go to brag about their space-capades and such – that Blue Origin’s landing wasn’t quite as hard as what Tesla has been attempting to do for a while.

The Falcon 9 that launched last night was very different from the Falcon 9 that disintegrated in June.

Previous landing attempts, none of them successful, used an ocean platform.

Needless to say, it was a tremendous success for SpaceX – especially since it’s the first time someone has landed a rocket that has gone as deep into space.

However, this led to a minor tweet war between Bezos and Musk. It’s hard to tell the scale of the Falcon 9 first stage after only seeing it in video or standing alone on the landing pad.