Private SpaceX rocket successfully launches, sends 11 satellites into orbit

The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket fires its engines to descend to a touchdown at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

SpaceX sent a rocket soaring toward orbit Monday night with 11 small satellites, its first mission since an accident last summer.

Aerospace company SpaceX made history Monday by successfully landing an orbital rocket after launching it into space.

About 3 minutes after liftoff and about 60 miles altitude, the spent first stage separated from the second stage which continued to orbit with the Orbcomm satellites. Creating reusable rockets is important for lowering the cost of space travel, which could make space tourism and a trip to Mars more feasible.

SpaceX successfully landed its powerful Falcon 9 rocket for the first time, a major milestone in the drive to cut costs and waste by making rockets as reusable as airplanes.

SpaceX workers cheered, jumped in the air and hugged each other as the 15-storey Falcon 9 rocket touched down at Florida’s Cape Canaveral. The rocket was supposed to be launched on Sunday at 8.29pm from Cape Canaveral, Florida, but it will now be launched on Monday at 8.33pm from the same place.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter that there is a 10 percent improved odds of a successful landing of the Falcon 9 booster on Cape Canaveral.

Several earlier attempts to land the Falcon 9’s first stage on an ocean platform have failed.

What’s significant is that this was a useful mission, Musk noted, not merely a practice flight.

The Dragon Spacecraft was flown in to the orbit by Falcon 9 to launch vehicle to supply the International Space Station (ISS) with cargo.

A live webcast by SpaceX showed people watching the launch broke into laud cheers and applause as the white portion of the rocket touched down in the darkness 10 minutes after lift-off.

Last month Amazn founder Jeff Bezos – who also owns the rocket company Blue Origin – announced he had successfully landed his New Shepard rocket after a suborbital flight. Currently, rockets are built only for one-time use.