SpaceX Successfully Lands Falcon 9

As the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket landed back at Cape Canaveral on Monday night after blasting 11 satellites into orbit, company employees clapped and cheered.

SpaceX’s rocket deployed 11 satellites for telecommunications company ORBCOMM of Fort Lee, N.J. after lifting off from Cape Canaveral, Fla. About two minutes into the flight, the rocket’s first-stage separated cleanly from the second stage and began a controlled descent back to Earth.

SpaceX has come close to landing a rocket but until now, had never actually made one successful landing.

The company’s previous attempts, which involved landing the rocket on a floating barge, all ended in failure.

The SpaceX rocket that landed Monday successfully launched satellites into orbit. If everything checks out, future launches by SpaceX could be the ones that kick off the reusable rocket revolution.

It is, no doubt, a big win for CEO Musk and SpaceX, but it’s not the first time when a rocket has landed successfully on earth after launching into space.

“Welcome back, baby!” Mr Musk wrote in a celebratory Twitter message he posted.

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

“The Falcon first stage landing is confirmed”.

SpaceX is one of several companies contracted by the USA space agency NASA to ferry supplies, and, eventually, astronauts to the International Space Station and low-Earth orbit. This is a huge step forward to creating reusable rockets, thus dramatically cutting costs of space missions. The industry now loses many millions of dollars in discarded machinery and sophisticated rocket components after each launch. Also, Falcon 9 must travel much faster than New Shepard (which is built for space tourism) to deliver cargo into space.