The largest hurdle for SpaceX – the one that tormented Elon Musk’s psyche – was the very feat of landing a rocket on earth after reaching an orbital domain of space.
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It’s a little sooty, but that’s to be expected.
He also announced that the rocket was ready for another mission, but he hinted that the technology is still not fully ready and it could take some years to iron out remaining issues and determine how to use reusable rockets on future missions.
That’s not to say the Falcon will ever escape the surly bonds of Earth again – Musk has already said the rocket will be put in the company’s planned museum, alongside the first Dragon capsule to come back to the planet after visiting the International Space Station. While it looks like the rocket could easily be refurbished to fly again, that’s not the plan right now.
The Dec. 21 upright landing recovery of the intact Falcon 9 first stage counts as a game changing achievement in the history spaceflight on the once fantastical road to rocket reusability and “A City on Mars”.
The mishap occurred just weeks after the Air Force initially certified Falcon 9 to launch military payloads.
After its historic landing, the Falcon 9 rocket that SpaceX landed after an orbital launch is reportedly in excellent condition.
Another company working on developing reusable rockets is Blue Origin, which successfully landed a New Shepard booster from suborbital flight.
The Falcon 9 first stage will be recycled to test out equipment, propellant loading, launch procedures and first stage ignition of the boosters upgraded Merlin 1D engines.
However, it wasn’t clear if that process would cause damage to the rocket that prevented it from being reused. Please see our terms of service for more information.
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A video showing almost all of the rocket take-off videos last year is definitely one way to celebrate a rather incredible year for space exploration from both what we know about our own solar system and universe, to a new beginning in commercial space travel.
