SpaceX lands reusable Falcon 9 rocket as Musk rejoices

Although the SpaceX landing is certainly also a “sub-orbital” flight – as the rocket booster did not make a full revolution around the planet – the Falcon 9 first stage reached higher and flew much faster than New Shepard, making the SpaceX landing far more challenging.

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 first-stage booster turned around and headed back to the landing site after the second stage separated and continued to orbit with the satellites.

After launching 11 small communications satellites, the Hawthorne, California-based spaceflight company did something that’s never been done: shoot a rocket into orbit then return it to Earth in a controlled, vertical landing. And if all goes well, as it did on Monday, the rocket lands softly and safely back on terra firma.

“Welcome back, baby!” Musk wrote in a celebratory message he posted on Twitter.

SpaceX aims to slash the cost of private space operations with such reusable components – but the company has not launched a rocket since one exploded in June.

Bezos didn’t respond to Musk’s tweets at that time, but he clearly sought to put his own company’s achievements ahead of SpaceX’s in his “congratulations” on Tuesday, tweeting “Welcome to the club!”

Watch the replay of the launch and landing at www.spacex.com and read Elon Musk’s background and thoughts on the mission.

Several earlier attempts to land the Falcon 9’s first stage on an ocean platform have failed.

“Lower launch costs mean more space-related endeavors, more startups, more space tourism, more space businesses”, he said.

Video images were soon cut off and the SpaceX live webcast returned to its commentators, who described the successful deployment of the rocket’s payload of 11 satellites for ORBCOMM.

It is a well-known fact that till now rockets worth millions get lost in space after the delivery of payload.