This is the second time – SpaceX again successfully landed Falcon 9 rocket on a floating drone ship after launching the rocket on Friday at 1:21 am EST from Cape Canaveral, Florida. After the company announced the probable date for sending Dragon Spacecraft last week, the company is again in the headlines.
Falcon 9, which carries a commercial space vehicle, delivered JCSAT-14, the Japanese communications satellite for SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation, to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). SKY Perfect JSAT is a leading satellite operator in the Asia-Pacific region and provides high-quality satellite communications to its customers using its fleet of 15 satellites.
“Following stage separation, the first stage of Falcon 9 will attempt an experimental landing on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship. Given this mission’s GTO destination, the first-stage will be subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating, making a successful landing unlikely.”
This is another success story by the company in the last two months – SpaceX made their first rocket recovery on that same drone ship on 8th April last month. The landing of the Falcon rockets an important mission for the company and trying to send more commercial vehicles into the orbit as the company plans to land two-thirds of their all rockets on the sea.
Landing rockets on the sea is very useful and commercially profitable because it is sometimes the only option for recovering the vehicle. This mission marks the fourth successful mission for SpaceX this year, and the company is working on the reuse of the rockets, which Elon Musk has stated they can make in the coming three or four months.
