For decades now, the launching of rockets into space has only been a one-time thing. Rocket boosters, the most expensive part of the equipment which contains the engine, get burnt up or crash into the ocean after liftoff.
On Monday evening, however, SpaceX, a commercial aerospace company seeking to make space travel more accessible to the masses, successfully landed the booster of its Falcon 9 rocket at a landing pad in Florida after pushing satellites towards orbit.
"The Falcon has landed," a SpaceX commentator said on the live webcast on Monday, as quoted by The Washington Post.
Elton Musk, chief executive and technological officer of SpaceX, told reporters after the landing that the rocket booster seemed to have landed "dead centre on the landing pad."
"We could not have asked for a better mission. [It is a] revolutionary moment," Musk said of the landing, which was initially delayed due to some technical concerns.
This historic landing—the first time a rocket booster safely returned to Earth after launching satellites into orbit—is seen as a great leap towards SpaceX vision to develop reusable rockets.
SpaceX's unmanned Falcon 9 rocket was launched from the same landing pad in Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:29 p.m. Monday. It was sent on a mission to deliver 11 commercial satellites into space for a communications company, Orbcomm.
After the rocket's second part was separated to head further into space, the first stage performed an impressive aerial U-Turn to head back to Earth. The rocket booster had to deal with gusty winds and had to slow down as it made its way back into Earth using the engine's thrust.
The milestone can be seen as a way for SpaceX to regain its momentum, after two failed attempts to land "autonomous spaceport drone ships" which exploded upon landing, the latest of which happened just six months ago.
