Mission success! SpaceX Falcon 9 makes history

Before Monday’s launch, weather and some other issues delayed the launch and lading attempt, but SpaceX launched Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Monday evening without a hitch.

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.

The latest rocket launched by SpaceX named Falcon 9 v1.

SpaceX’s rocket deployed 11 satellites for telecommunications company ORBCOMM of Fort Lee, N.J. after lifting off from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

“Congratulations @SpaceX on your successful vertical landing of the first stage back on Earth!” Monday’s launch was the first since SpaceX redesigned and upgraded the powerful rocket.

The landing is a major victory for Elon Musk and his aerospace company as it was the company’s first flight since it rocket exploded about six months ago. The rocket was carrying $110 million worth of supplies for NASA to the International Space Station.

On that occasion an unmanned Falcon-9 broke apart in flames minutes after lifting off from Cape Canaveral, with debris tumbling out of the sky into the Atlantic Ocean.

Nonetheless the Falcon-9 flight, which also went twice as high as New Shepard, is a milestone towards reusing rockets. Blue Origin, founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, just landed the first reusable rocket but Musk pointed out that was a suborbital trip, the requirements for which are considerably different.

In July, Elon Musk, chief executive of Hawthorne-based SpaceX, said a preliminary investigation found that the explosion was caused by the failure of a two-foot long strut that held down a helium bottle in the rocket’s second stage. But since Musk really wanted to make sure that the next landing attempt would be a success, he would eventually push back the launch to Monday evening. Most rockets that have carried people or satellites to outer space over the last 58 years have been discarded after their launch, often burning up upon reentry.