SpaceX launches rocket 6 months after accident, then lands

SpaceX’s audacious vertical rocket landing on Monday lays a critical foundation for reusable rockets that could help humans colonize Mars, according to the company’s CEO Elon Musk.

A day after the first-ever fully successful landing of a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster, space fans around the world are geeking out over the pictures.

In a seemingly back-handed compliment to SpaceX, Mr Bezos tweeted a message of congratulations to Mr Musk’s company, saying: “Welcome to the club!”

Landing rockets is crucial to lower the cost of space flights as it allows reusability of the first stage, which is also most expensive stage.

A remodelled version of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifting off on Monday at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the launcher’s first mission since a June failure. (Credit: SpaceX)A time-exposure shows the streaks created during the Falcon 9 rocket’s ascent and the first-stage booster’s descent.

As of Monday night, it can say its Falcon 9 rocket was the first to launch into orbit, deploy satellites and land vertically at Cape Canaveral with its 15-story booster still intact.

The mission’s primary objective was commercial: the company had been commissioned to launch satellites for the New Jersey-based communications company OrbComm.

“It’s a revolutionary moment”, Musk later told reporters. Previous landing attempts ended in fiery blasts, but those aimed for an ocean platform.

“This has been a wildly successful return to flight for SpaceX”, said one SpaceX launch commentator.

“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”, the top officer at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Brig.

SpaceX is taking orbital rocketry down a long and challenging road that will render the use of space for industry and intercontinental transport so reliable and affordable that everyone can use space the way we use the stratosphere.

Elon Musk said the lower temperatures improved the performance of the rocket engines. In the meantime, he’s working to transform the SpaceX Dragon capsules from cargo ships into real spaceships for crews traveling to and from the orbiting station.