#rocketlanding

Landing the first stage of a rocket successfully and reliably is a key step in cutting costs for private space travel, because it offers the possibility of reusing the launch system. If the entire rocket is always thrown away, there is only so much any company can do to cut costs. Furthermore, if a rocket is taken to another planet, refueling and reusing the rocket requires landing the rocket, intact, in a position where it can easily be relaunched – in other words, vertically.

SpaceX has tried several times this year to land a rocket, including twice on an uncrewed drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Both of those rockets failed to successfully guide and stabilize themselves on the landing platform.

Today, after an additional failure earlier this year during the launch phase, SpaceX launched a rocket carrying a group of small satellites. The second stage of the rocket successfully separated a few minutes after launch and carried the satellites into orbit. The first stage ignited retro rockets and guided itself down to a landing target at Cape Canaveral Air Station. It successfully cut its rockets off, leaving it standing vertically on the landing platform. This is the first ever vertical landing of a rocket stage after an orbital launch.

This photo shows it standing on the pad just after landing. At some point, there will likely be video released from the perspective of the landing platform. Until then, well done SpaceX on a solid step towards pushing space travel into the future.

-JBB