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SpaceX Makes History With First-Ever Recycled Rocket
A booster that flew to space last year made the trip again and returned to Earth, marking a major step on the road to cheaper space travel.
In a milestone for the private spaceflight company, SpaceX today successfully launched a reused Falcon 9 rocket booster into space—the same first stage that carried a bouncy house into space last year.
The rocket booster had previously stuck a spectacular landing on a drone ship floating off the Florida coast, playfully named “Of Course I Still Love You.”
That reused booster stuck its landing again on Thursday, and on the same drone ship no less, after blasting off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This time, the rocket wasn’t carrying an inflatable space pod, but was instead delivering a communications satellite to orbit for a company called SES.
The rocket’s vertical touchdown marks the ninth successful SpaceX landing in 14 tries, six
