Elon Musk’s SpaceX had made a great achievement by successfully re-launching one of its Falcon 9 rockets into orbit and had it return to earth safely.
Last year in April, during the CRS 8 mission the same rocket was used, when it was the first Falcon 9 rocket to successfully land on one of SpaceX’s autonomous drone ships at sea. It is since undergone a barrage of testing to ensure it’s ready to successfully fly again.
The groundbreaking launch took place at 6:27pm EDT (11.27pm BST) from Cape Canaveral in Florida. On board was the SES-10 satellite for Luxembourg Company SES.
After successfully launching a satellite toward geosynchronous orbit-22,000 miles into space, the rocket then returned to Earth and landed on a remotely piloted platform, known as a drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. This was the ninth successful landing for SpaceX-three on land and six at sea-but arguably the most important since the first one in December 2015.
- SEE ALSO: SpaceX releases first stage landing video of Falcon 9 on droneship
Falcon 9 first stage has landed on Of Course I Still Love You- world’s first re-flight of an orbital class rocket.
The Falcon 9’s second flight to orbit has great significance for affordable space travel and is a big victory for SpaceX which has indeed made rockets reusable. Speaking through a company live stream, SpaceX Founder and CEO, Musk said, “It means you can fly and refly an orbital class booster, which is the most expensive part of the rocket. This is going to be, ultimately a huge revolution in spaceflight.”
The SES-10 will provide improved connectivity across Latin America and will become the one of the biggest satellites servicing the region. Being able to fly to the first stage of rocket again and again proves that rockets can be reusable. There will be decrement in then cost that are used for going to space which has been SpaceX’s ultimate objective.
According to Popular Science Notes, the launch of SpaceX roughly cost $62million and by making use of reusable rockets price of the launch was reduced by 30 percent.
Image: SpaceX/Flikr
