The high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has hailed a “revolutionary moment” for reusable space hardware after his SpaceX programme successively launched and returned a rocket to earth, landing it in an upright position.
In its first mission since a cargo ship was destroyed in an accident in June, SpaceX sent a Falcon rocket into orbit on Monday night with 11 satellites on board.
More significantly, it then returned to Cape Canaveral, Florida, with the 15-storey-tall booster rocket landing intact in an upright position, ready to be used for future missions. The breakthrough represents a boost to Musk’s ambitions to drive down the cost of space travel. “Welcome back, baby!” he tweeted after touchdown.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)December 22, 201511 satellites deployed to target orbit and Falcon has landed back at Cape Canaveral. Headed to LZ-1. Welcome back, baby!
Speaking to reporters, he said: “It’s a revolutionary moment. No one has ever brought a booster, an orbital-class booster, back intact.”
He added: “We achieved recovery of the rocket in a mission that actually deployed 11 satellites,” he said.
Musk has said the ability to return rockets to Earth so they can be refurbished and reflown would slash his SpaceX company’s operational costs in the burgeoning and highly competitive private space launch industry.
SpaceX employees erupted in jubilation as they watched a live stream of the 156ft (47.5m) white booster slowly descending amid a glowing orange ball.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)December 22, 2015
There and back again pic.twitter.com/Ll7wg2hL1G
Rival company Blue Origin, a space startup founded by Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, successfully completed a similar return rocket landing test last month, but the SpaceX feat was achieved during an actual commercial launch.
Minutes after blast-off, the Falcon 9’s first stage rocket separated from its upper-stage booster, which continued on into orbit to release Orbcomm’s satellites. The satellites will provide machine-to-machine messaging services on the ground, such as between retailers and shipping containers.
The rocket’s main stage then turned around, fired a series of engine burns, deployed landing legs, and settled itself on to a newly refurbished landing pad occupying a decommissioned missile site.
SpaceX previously experimented, unsuccessfully, with landing its rockets on aplatform in the ocean.
The Hawthorne, California-based company was founded in 2002 by Musk, who also serves as chief executive of Tesla, the electric car maker.
Reuters contributed to this report