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SpaceX lands reusable Falcon 9 rocket as Musk rejoices
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has its momentum back.
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Video images were soon cut off and the SpaceX live webcast returned to its commentators, who described the successful deployment of the rocket’s payload of 11 satellites for ORBCOMM.
The end result of this historic landing: rather than having to build an entirely new rocket to make their next launch, SpaceX could simply give this one a “tune up” to ensure everything is working fine, refuel it, perch its payload on top and put it right back on the launch pad.
Once the engines cutoff the rocket conducts its flip manoeuvre.
And it was the first attempt to land its Falcon 9 on an actual launchpad.
The reusable main-stage booster then turned around, flew back to Cape Canaveral and landed safely near its launchpad in a dramatic spaceflight first. Multiple space companies were competing to achieve this breakthrough, but SpaceX is the first to succeed in landing a rocket for a non-suborbital trip.
Landing rockets upright is crucial to cutting the cost of space travel, since that means the rockets can be reused.
The mission, capped by delivery of all 11 satellites to orbit for launch customer ORBCOMM, unfolded in just over 30 minutes.
On that occasion an unmanned Falcon-9 broke apart in flames minutes after lifting off from Cape Canaveral, with debris tumbling out of the sky into the Atlantic Ocean.
Musk has said the ability to return his rockets to Earth so they can be refurbished and reflown would slash his company’s operating costs in the burgeoning and highly competitive private space launch industry.
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The rocket, which had 18 straight successes prior to the fateful flight, was in the process of sending a cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS). The rocket landed successfully in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Most rockets that have carried people or satellites to outer space over the last 58 years have been discarded after their launch, often burning up upon reentry.