SpaceX rocket makes historic landing

The launch and landing was the company’s first attempt since June, during which a previous rocket exploded mid-flight. “I think we’ll probably keep this one on the ground, just [because] it’s kind of unique, it’s the first one we’ve brought back”, he said. However, the SpaceX rocket was on a regular commercial flight to launch 11 satellites, while the Blue Origin rocket went up to 100 km and then came back. The latest mission was capped by delivery of all 11 satellites to orbit for customer Orbcomm. It marked a pivotal reversal of fortunes for privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, which was founded by high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Musk’s private space company has been working on the audacious maneuver for some time, and earlier this year we profiled Lars Blackmore, a key member of the team at SpaceX working on the effort (see “35 Innovators Under 35: Lars Blackmore”).

The Falcon 9 rocket lands on its launchpad.

Monday’s landing turned that failure into success, though Musk admitted during the conference call that it’ll take several years to attain full reusability of rockets and, in turn, affordable flights. 10 minutes later the first stage successfully landed vertically back at the Cape in a historic first time feat.

The Falcon-9 craft touched down late on Monday night, about 10km from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The landing of the rocket was officially only a secondary test objective after deploying the satellites, but it’s a big accomplishment for SpaceX, proving that their plan for a reusable rocket really works.

“The Falcon Has Landed!” gushed exuberant SpaceX officials during a live webscast. 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. A rocket planning to deliver supplies to the International Space Station disintegrated before reaching its destination six months ago.