SpaceX rocket sticks its landing

As for the Falcon 9 rocket that made history last month, Florida Today reported SpaceX is planning a test-fire at its Launch Complex 40.

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) is ushering in 2016 with a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch scheduled for January 17.

The first available launch window will open on Sunday at 1:42 p.m. ET. Cold gas thrusters will help the rocket complete a flip maneuver that will bring it barreling back toward Earth. It went on to deliver its payload of 11 Orbcomm satellites into orbit.

But they kind of deserve a victory lap, because the Falcon 9 landing was such a historic, groundbreaking event.

The Jason 3 oceanography satellite, a joint project between USA and European weather agencies, is closed up inside the nose cone of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket awaiting launch from California’s Central Coast on Sunday. While Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket technically pulled off the same feat earlier a year ago, SpaceX’s trick was achieved with a much larger rocket, essentially making re-usable rockets a reality and greatly diminishing the costs of space travel and ISS resupply missions.

In a tweet on Monday Musk confirmed that the rocket landing attempt will use a droneship, or floating ocean platform. Then, with legs extending at the last second, it returned to Earth to land vertically on a launch pad. Dramatic video from one attempt shows just how close the rocket came to landing on the barge.