SpaceX rocket blasts to space and back, sticks the landing

The ability to land vertically is prized because it allows rockets to be reused, substantially reducing costs and increasing the frequency of launches.

The final frontier might finally get more accessible sometime soon – in a huge accomplishment for spaceflight and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched a payload of 11 satellites into orbit and, more importantly, returned its first stage rockets safely to Earth for reuse. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket reportedly costs about $55 million to build. “We achieved recovery of the rocket in a mission that actually deployed 11 satellites”, he said. (Credit: SpaceX)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.

In a seemingly back-handed compliment to SpaceX, Mr Bezos tweeted a message of congratulations to Mr Musk’s company, saying: “Welcome to the club!”

If companies start getting these rockets ready in just days or weeks, this could open the door for space travel.

“I think we’ll probably keep this one on the ground…it’s kind of unique, it’s the first one we’ve brought back”, he said.

A competing rocket company, Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, made a similar landing on November 23, though with a suborbital booster rocket rather than SpaceX’s larger, faster orbital booster. Gen. Wayne Monteith, noted that the returning booster “placed the exclamation mark on 2015”.

Marc Eisenberg, chief executive officer at OrbComm, seemed just as excited about the booster landing as he was about his satellites reaching orbit.

SpaceX is leasing the landing area, a former Atlas missile-launching site, from the Air Force. So far, they have managed to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX is leasing the touchdown area – marked by a giant X – from the Air Force. Three tries at vertical landings of the first-stage boosters earlier this year failed; in each case, the segment aimed for a modified barge off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida.

Development on the Falcon 9 job has been about one year in the making. “That really is the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionize access to space”. “This is a critical step towards establishing a city on Mars”, he said, during a conference call with reporters after Monday’s launch.