Check out this stunning close-up video of the SpaceX rocket’s flawless touchdown

On June 28, a failed steel strut caused SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to explode while on an (unmanned) resupply mission to the ISS.

“Welcome back, baby!” Musk tweeted after touchdown.

The company has previously attempted the feat three times, coming close to landing on a bull’s-eye on a floating barge. Using lessons learned from those attempts, in January 2015 SpaceX attempted a precision landing on the drone ship, nicknamed “Just Read the Instructions”.

SpaceX commentators described the launch and return – the first time an orbital rocket successfully achieved a controlled landing on Earth – as “incredibly exciting”.

Landing rockets upright is crucial to cutting the cost of space travel, since that means the rockets can be reused.

The Falcon rocket blasted off from the USA spaceport in Cape Canaveral, Florida carrying 11 small satellites into low-Earth orbit for communications firm OrbComm. Welcome to the club!

The rocket landing marks a huge accomplishment for the nascent private spaceflight industry, which has proven capable of delivering payloads into orbit and supplies to the International Space Station. “It’s a revolutionary moment”, Musk told media after the landing.

After Monday’s landing, SpaceX announced it had more rockets in development that are created to pull off the same maneuver.

“SpaceX believes a fully and rapidly reusable rocket is the pivotal breakthrough needed to substantially reduce the cost of space access”, the company says on its website.

“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”.

Minutes after blastoff, the Falcon 9’s first-stage rocket separated from its upper-stage booster, which continued on into orbit to release ORBCOMM’s satellites about 800 km above the Earth. That included Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, whose company Blue Origin also recently landed a rocket.