SpaceX Makes History – Successfully Achieves VTOL Space Flight and Lands a

Musk has said the ability to return his rockets to Earth so they can be refurbished and reflown would slash his company’s operational costs in the burgeoning and highly competitive private space launch industry. Musk says the move would drastically reduce launch costs.

We already showed you incredible photos and videos of this remarkable achievement, but now it’s time to watch the feat from a different angle. He goes on to add, “This was a first for us at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and I can’t even begin to describe the excitement the team feels right now having been a part of this historic first-stage rocket landing”. It then successfully landed its 15-story leftover booster an upright position in Cape Canaveral approximately 10 minutes later.

While many other rockets burn up on re-entry, SpaceX designed the Falcon 9 to be able to withstand the heat and land vertically so the rocket can be used again on a future launch. Since that time, the company has regrouped its efforts into getting the Falcon 9 back in order and continuing work on a vertical landing, which had been accomplished by soft landing at sea, but proved more elusive on attempts on a barge floating in the ocean.

It took a bit of trial and error, but SpaceX has finally pulled it off – the Falcon 9 rocket is officially a reusable piece of space tech.

“It’s a revolutionary moment”, NBC News quoted Musk telling reporters. “Orbital rockets are key to SpaceX’s eventual goal of transporting people to far-away destinations like Mars and then bringing them back home”.

Musk said the landing appeared close to flawless and the company “could not have asked for a better mission or a better day”.

SpaceX’s redesigned rocket blasted off…

Ironically enough, SpaceX founder Elon Musk noted that the Falcon 9 that landed on Monday night will never actually be reused on another mission. It hopes to resume supply runs for NASA in February.

“Welcome back, baby!” the company’s CEO tweeted following the successful landing.