SpaceX Falcon rocket nails safe landing in pivotal space feat

Monday night, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket made a historic vertical landing back on Earth at Cape Canaveral after sending satellites into orbit, leading company founder Elon Musk to celebrate on Twitter.

Last month, Amazonbillionaire Jeff Bezos and his company Blue Origin successfully launched a rocket to a test altitude of 329,839 feet and then landed it near the launch pad in Texas.

For the first time anywhere, a rocket was launched but then returned and landed vertically on the pad.

Though attempting to land its reusable rocket was only the mission’s secondary objective, the milestone proves next generation space travel can be both significantly cheaper and more environmental than the off-Earth missions of the 20th century. Previously, SpaceX has tried several times to land its rocket booster on a drone ship in the ocean, but all attempts failed.

SpaceX was founded in 2002 by former PayPal entrepreneur and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk.

“Welcome back, baby”, Mr Musk said in a celebratory tweet.

“It’s a revolutionary moment”, NBC News quoted Musk telling reporters.

He later told journalists “No one has ever brought a booster, an orbital-class booster, back intact”.

On June 28, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon spacecraft filled with cargo for the International Space Station exploded a few minutes after lift-off. The landing paves the way for potentially reusing rockets for space launches, which SpaceX and other companies hope will dramatically reduce the cost of gaining access to space. Orbcomm said in a press release that the satellites were launched successfully into orbit.

The tall, white portion of the rocket glided back to Earth, its engines burning bright orange against a black night sky. The first was hoisting the satellites for OrbComm, a New Jersey-based communication company.