Wichita company becomes part of space-travel history

Creating reusable rockets that can land and relaunch is considered a major technological milestone that will significantly lower the cost of space travel.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch and landing comes after Blue Origin of Kent, Wash., founded by Amazon.com Inc.’s Jeff Bezos, last month launched a smaller payload-less rocket into space and landed it back on earth vertically, a first in rocket history.

SpaceX isn’t alone in its clamor for rocket recycling.

Many rockets use multiple stages, or engine sets, to reduce weight during launch.

Safely landing these rockets can save companies a lot of money, said Carissa Christensen, managing partner at the consulting firm Tauri Group. 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 Falcon first stage landing is confirmed”, SpaceX wrote on Twitter.

The U.S. space agency NASA also applauded the feat. The industry now loses many millions of dollars in discarded machinery and sophisticated rocket components after each launch.

Several attempts to land the Falcon 9’s first stage on a floating ocean platform have failed – with the rocket either colliding with the autonomous drone ship or tipping over.

It is, no doubt, a big win for CEO Musk and SpaceX, but it’s not the first time when a rocket has landed successfully on earth after launching into space.

The Falcon 9 rocket’s landing marks the company’s return to flight after half a year with an upgraded design that worked to perfection.

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