SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was successfully landed on Earth after being launched to Space. It was the first time when a rocket launched a payload into the space and then landed safely on solid surface. This video, which SpaceX released Tuesday, shows the vertical landing from the vantage point of a helicopter hovering nearby.

Watch the replay of the launch and landing at www.spacex.com and read Elon Musk’s background and thoughts on the mission. During the monumental event, the first-stage rocket separated from it’s upper-stage booster.

Miriam Kramer contributed reporting.

This rocket will now go through a battery of tests, including a static fire test, to determine if it could make the trip back to space. Orbcomm said in a press release that the satellites were launched successfully into orbit.

“We achieved recovery of the rocket in a mission that also deployed 11 satellites”, Musk added.

Everyone knows that a typical launch is a very expensive process, apart from the building costs of a spaceship, but after this successful landing, SpaceX became the cheapest launch provider in its category, surpassing its U.S or European rivals.

SpaceX had not ever attempted to land a rocket on land, and it marked the firm’s first successful attempt to recover a rocket from an orbital flight.

The Falcon-9 craft touched down late on Monday night, about 10km from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was also the first mission SpaceX has launched since June, after one of its Falcon 9 rockets was destroyed in an accident while en route to the International Space Station.

“I think we’ll probably keep this one on the ground”, Musk said, according to The Verge, “just [because] it’s kind of unique, it’s the first one we’ve brought back”. His problem? Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket is meant only for suborbital flight. Because the SpaceX rocket is more powerful, and reached a low-earth orbit, the SpaceX achievement is being touted-at least by Musk-as more significant.