A big step was made on Monday evening in the race to build space-bound rockets that can be used for multiple launches. The rocket landed about 10 minutes after liftoff.
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Blue Origin, another billionaire’s rocket company, successfully landed a booster last month in West Texas.
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SpaceX is planning to revolutionise the rocket business, which up until now has lost an incredible number of dollars in precious rocket components and cast-off machines after every launch.
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The mission, capped by delivery of all 11 satellites to orbit for launch customer ORBCOMM, unfolded in just over 30 minutes. During the monumental event, the first-stage rocket separated from it’s upper-stage booster. 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. The mission involved launching SpaceX’s Flacon 9 reusable rocket and then landing it on a concrete landing pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It landed at the landing site which was about 9.65km (6 miles) south of its launch pad. From Elon Musk’s twitter page.
SpaceX previously experimented, unsuccessfully, with landing its rockets on a platform in the ocean. This time it was carrying 11 data-relay satellites, according to the SpaceX website.
ORBCOMM chief executive officer Marc Eisenberg said: “Today marks a significant milestone for our company”.
Musk has said the ability to reuse a rocket – which dramatically reduces launch cost – is something that will help revolutionize commercial space travel. This time, Musk opted for a true land touchdown. The cooling down of temperatures improves performance of the rocket engines. In the meantime, he’s working to transform the SpaceX Dragon capsules from cargo ships into real spaceships for crews travelling to and from the orbiting station.
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Mayor Tony Martinez called everyone he could think of Monday night after seeing what SpaceX pulled off.
