SpaceX, headed by Internet tycoon Elon Musk, is striving to revolutionise the rocket industry, which now loses many millions of dollars in jettisoned machinery and sophisticated rocket components after each launch. Last night, for the first time, a rocket delivered its payload to orbit and then made a landing back where it came from without falling into the ocean or exploding.
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SpaceX successfully launched and landed a rocket Monday night, and it was carrying a New Jersey payload.
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Blue Origin, SpaceX and other companies have been competing to develop the first fully reusable rocket.
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Returning a Falcon 9 rocket from space after a successful launch has been a major goal for Musk and SpaceX since the company’s founding in 2002. This is a huge step forward to creating reusable rockets, thus dramatically cutting costs of space missions.
The mission, capped by delivery of all 11 satellites to orbit for launch customer ORBCOMM, unfolded in just over 30 minutes.
SpaceX joins Blue Origin as the only space exploration organizations to successfully land a rocket intact after it had been launched. Welcome to the club! Musk called the moment revolutionary, saying that it landed “dead center on the landing pad”. After that incident, SpaceX took a six-month hiatus from launches and rolled out the upgraded Falcon 9, which has increased thrust, a much larger upper stage engine bell, and a deep cryo oxidizer. If you’ve got 30 minutes to spare, you can check out the full mission video below.
It is not the first spacecraft to land a booster vertically; that feat was claimed by the much smaller New Shepard rocket in Texas last month.
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“I think we’ll probably keep this one on the ground”, Musk said, according to The Verge, “just [because] it’s kind of unique, it’s the first one we’ve brought back”. Because the SpaceX rocket is more powerful, and reached a low-earth orbit, the SpaceX achievement is being touted-at least by Musk-as more significant.
