Jeff Bezos tweets a snarky congrats to Elon Musk

SpaceX, which is privately owned by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, needed to find a way to be both reliable and, more importantly, sustainable, and reusable rockets are the ticket. Musk says that each Falcon 9 rocket costs US$60 million, while the propellant for each launch costs $200,000 or so.

“Welcome back, baby!”, SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted shortly after touchdown.

Following several unsuccessful attempts to launch and re-land the Falcon 9, the space world was abuzz when Musk confirmed that SpaceX would be giving it another try on Sunday morning.

All previous attempts from SpaceX to land on a floating landing pad were all unsuccessful. But more importantly, Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket is meant for getting into space-i.e., for commercial space travel-but is not meant for orbiting, as Musk himself pointed out after the Blue Origin landing in late November. By shifting from expendable rockets to reusable rockets, launch costs are expected to drop significantly, reducing the price tag for putting payloads and people in space. Bezos was close-lipped when SpaceX successfully lifted a payload to the International Space Station in May of 2012 and also when SpaceX placed a satellite into a geostationary orbit in December 2013. Last year, the Falcon 9 had exploded just two minutes after launch due to a defect in the strut. Welcome to the club! Multiple space companies were competing to achieve this breakthrough, but SpaceX is the first to succeed in landing a rocket for a non-suborbital trip.

The company, he explained, aims to re-fly one of its rocket boosters at some point during 2016, when it expects to make about a dozen spaceflights. Eliminating a $16 million expense could drastically bring down launch costs.

“What SpaceX just accomplished relative to Blue Origin is akin to the difference between a plane and a tossed ball, or, if you want to be generous, the difference between a plane and a hot air balloon”, Thompson wrote.

“The Falcon has landed”, a launch commentator said during SpaceX’s webcast as applause and cheers erupted at SpaceX’s California headquarters, followed by chants of “USA!”

Eisenberg said his company was SpaceX’s “first commercial customer”, and said Orbcomm had faith that the launch would be successful.

The company had managed to successfully launch a rocket called Falcon 9 and return it safely back to Earth on Monday night. A rocket booster engine ignited, just seconds before slowly and gently landing at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. When you think of how much larger a communications satellite is than the average man, or how much larger still a spacecraft suited to long-range space travel is, you see how the costs of space flight quickly add up.

Mr Musk has said the ability to return its rockets to Earth so they can be reused and reflown would hugely reduce his company’s operational costs in the growing but highly competitive private space launch industry.

Marco Caceres, senior analyst and director of space studies at Teal Group, told Via Satellite that it was no surprise SpaceX would continue nonplussed by Blue Origin’s accomplishment.

“NSS congratulates SpaceX on this incredible achievement”, said Mark Hopkins, NSS Executive Committee Chairman. (Credit: SpaceX)A time-exposure shows the streaks created during the Falcon 9 rocket’s ascent and the first-stage booster’s descent.