SpaceX Makes History with Launch and Landing of a Used Falcon 9 Rocket Jackie Fernandez - CalNews
go to original March 31, 2017

Elon Musk's space company just made history by reusing the Falcon 9 rocket (CNET)

In a flight that could revolutionize the future of space missions, Hawthorne-based SpaceX successfully launched a communications satellite into orbit Thursday using a rocket that was previously sent into space and recovered intact instead of being allowed to burn up or crash into the ocean.

The launch of the SES-10 global communications satellite marked the first time an orbital class rocket had ever been re-used for space flight — an advancement with the potential to save millions of dollars on future cargo and manned missions.

After the recycled Falcon 9 rocket propelled the satellite into orbit, it was again flown back to Earth and successfully landed upright on a barge floating in the Atlantic Ocean, so it could potentially be used again and again.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk called it “an amazing day” for space and the space industry.



“It means you can fly and re-fly an orbit-class booster, which is the most expensive part of the rocket,” Musk said shortly after the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket landed. “This is going to be … a huge revolution in space flight. It’s the difference between — if you had airplanes where you threw away an airplane after every flight versus you could  reuse them multiple times. It’s been 15 years to get to this point. It’s taken us a long time — a lot of difficult steps along the way.

I’m just incredibly proud of the SpaceX team to be able to achieve this incredible milestone in the history of space,” he said. “I’m sort of at a loss for words. It’s really a great day not just for SpaceX but the space industry as a whole, and proving that something can be done that many said was impossible.”

Read the rest at CalNews

Related: Elon Musk Launches Neuralink Startup to Connect Your Brain to the Internet (Newsweek)

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