SpaceX successfully launches rocket, lands booster at Cape Canaveral

SpaceX signaled a new phase of the private sector space race on Monday evening, when it launched a payload of satellites to space and successfully landed a rocket stage back on Earth.

The rocket launch was the first carried out by Space X since June when an unmanned Falcon exploded minutes after lifting off from Cape Canaveral. 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 Falcon-9 11 communications satellites were despatched by rocket booster before returning to an erect position at Cape Canaveral.

SpaceX made a few changes to the rocket, including trying to land it on the ground rather than on a platform on the ocean, one of the things that made the earlier attempts so challenging.

This is technically not the first time this feat has been accomplished; Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket became the first reusable rocket last month.

While SpaceX’s famous founder Elon Musk is typically the focus of conversations surrounding the company, many more men and women are involved with the company’s endeavors.

“I’d like to congratulate SpaceX on making history by landing the Falcon 9’s reusable stage one booster from a record altitude”, Orbcomm CEO Marc Eisenberg said. The company, promoted by entrepreneur Elon Musk to accelerate low-priced access to space, achieved this feat in the third attempt.

“The Falcon has landed”, a SpaceX commentator said on the live webcast.

“It’s a revolutionary moment”, Musk told the press after the landing.

The Falcon 9 used for the the launch is an upgraded version of the rocket and stands 23 storeys tall. There’s still much work to be done in cutting the costs of space travel, but this is definitely a step in the right direction!

Musk had not responded to Bezos at the time of publication.