SpaceX makes history: Rocket landing first for an orbital vehicle

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has finally made a successful landing after launch, marking a big moment for company CEO Elon Musk and his attempts to prove the reusability of the rocket, as well as the benefits of doing so. The SpaceX launch and landing this week was a much trickier accomplishment, and marks the first time a rocket has been safely landed after delivering a payload into orbit. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket reportedly costs about $55 million to build. About two minutes into the flight, the rocket’s first-stage separated cleanly from the second stage and began a controlled descent back to Earth.

The SpaceX rocket that landed Monday successfully launched satellites into orbit.

Once the engines cutoff the rocket conducts its flip manoeuvre.

SpaceX’s released video images which showed the first stage of the rocket touching down at Cape Canaveral, Florida. But, Falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX is more complex than Blue Origin’s rocket as it’s created to go higher in space. Six months ago, an unmanned SpaceX rocket exploded while carrying supplies to the International Space Station. The historic landing of the first-stage booster back at Cape Canaveral could potentially lead to an era of cheaper space travel through reusable spacecraft.

NASA learned this lesson the hard way with its space shuttle program, said Ray Sedwick, who teaches aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland.

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.

“Welcome back, baby!” Musk wrote in a celebratory message he posted on Twitter. Most rockets that have carried people or satellites to outer space over the last 58 years have been discarded after their launch, often burning up upon reentry. But SpaceX has insisted that each attempt has helped engineers come closer to perfecting the technique.