Just when you thought that they might be down and out, they rise back with an earth-shaking, sky tearing bang! Elon Musk’s SpaceX has just successfully launched their first ever Falcon 9 rocket to space after the unfortunate explosion in Sept. that had put their company’s future in jeopardy. The explosion also took with it a multimillion dollar satellite onboard along with grounding SpaceX’s launches for five uneasy months.
They made this comeback in style, as the company landed their seventh rocket stage back on Earth after it delivered a payload to space. It also landed the booster effortlessly on a small remotely operated barge in the Pacific Ocean.
Liftoff pic.twitter.com/pcVJOvFHY2
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 15, 2017
The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket gently came back to earth and landed on SpaceX’s drone ship within 10 minutes of the launch of communications satellites to the orbit for another spaceflight company, Iridium.
The launch had a lot of symbolic meaning since it was a display of company’s resolve, grit, and determination as the industry insiders watched how Musk’s SpaceX would bounce back after the disaster in September.
Bill Ostrove, who is an aerospace and defense industry analyst at Forecast International spoke on the launch,
“Simply enough, SpaceX will be helped by just having a successful launch with no problems. That will go a long way towards proving themselves again. The more launches in a row they can get without a problem the better.”
One of the greatest show of ambition by SpaceX is their plan to change the way payloads are launched into space via their rocket landing program. The traditional companies use these rockets for one mission a piece, but SpaceX has introduced rockets that launch and return to the earth for a re-launch, which reduces the cost of accessing space manifolds.
We would like to know your thoughts in the comments’ section below!
