Thursday, March 30, 2017

In Historic First, SpaceX Launches, Returns Rocket From Space, Again

Hawthorne-based SpaceX has accomplished a historic launch, returning a Falcon 9 rocket to space and successfully landing the rocket on its drone ship in the Pacific. SpaceX is the first organization to launch a rocket and refly a orbital booster to space. Elon Musk, in an interview on SpaceX's broadcast of the flight, said that the orbital booster is the most expensive part of a rocket, and will be "a revolution" in spaceflight. Musk said it took SpaceX fifteen years to get to the point. SpaceX is delivering the SES-10 communications satelitte into Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). The Falcon 9's first stage had originally launched in a mission in April of last year to the ISS.