Congratulations SpaceX - Rocket landed back at Cape

paulstar

SpaceX last night landed their Falcon 9 rocket back at Cape Canaveral, the first time a rocket used to put things into orbit has ever landed intact.

The era of re-useable rockets is with us.

Congratulations to SpaceX and Elon Musk.

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/spacex-set-attempt-first-rocket-launch-falcon-9-explosion-n483921

Brilliant video showing it landing exactly on the X. Quite amazing:

https://twitter.com/spacex
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Oblivion

It's a fine achievement but they've had so many failures in the past, one wonders if this was a fluke and whether they can maintain any consistency from now on.

paulstar

Oblivion wrote: »

It's a fine achievement but they've had so many failures in the past, one wonders if this was a fluke and whether they can maintain any consistency from now on.

Past attempts were very much experimental - trial and error if you like.

But now they have got it right, they should be able to do it reliably.

Also, past landing attempts have been on a barge at sea - it's much easier to land on a large flat bit of (stationary!) ground.