SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket attempted another rocket landing at sea after in blasted off from Florida, sending a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. On Friday, the reusable rocket booster landed on a floating ocean barge just minutes after releasing cargo payload into lower Earth orbit.
The rocket booster autonomously landed on the target droneship which marks the first time ever that a private space company successfully landed a cheap, reusable rocket at sea, that can be used again for commercial spaceflight. This will significantly slash expensive costs, saving millions of dollars when it comes to space launches and missions as rocket boosters are often discarded, burning upon re-entry in the planet's atmosphere.
The liftoff occurred at 4:43 P.M. EDT from the Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida which is also the first successful cargo resupply mission from SpaceX for NASA, since an unfortunate launch failure that resulted in an accident last June 2015 that destroyed cargo payload filled with water, food, and experiments for the space station.
Into two to three minutes after the launch on Friday, the main part of the rocket's first stage that measured 23 storeys tall, separated and returned towards the landing platform that has been floating in the Atlantic ocean some 185 miles away from northeastern Cape Canaveral.
NASA television provided a live video feed that showed how the rocket booster landed on its four legs as it extended outward upon descent over the sea, where it settled itself in an upright position on the floating ocean barge platform some eight minutes after the launch.
According to SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk, the rocket landed instead of tipping over and putting a hole in the ship and we are real excited about that, to local media at the Kennedy Space Center.
Prior to this successful vertical landing, four attempts ended in failure and explosions. Last December, the Falcon 9 rocket landed successfully on the ground in Cape Canaveral that marked the first ever vertical landing from an actual commercial space mission.
This reusable rocket booster will return to Florida on Sunday which will go through a series of test fires about 10 times, which will be most likely re-used and re-launched for a commercial spaceflight as early as next month, says Musk.