Last night, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida into outer space. The rocket was carrying a Japanese communications satellite, JCSAT-16, and the mission included putting the spacecraft into geostationary transfer orbit (GT). This orbit is particularly far from earth, and the rocket must use a lot of energy to get the satellite into place.

What was really unique about last night's launch, and SpaceX missions in general, is that after the rocket reached the outer atmosphere, the stage one booster fell back to Earth and landed on a floating platform a few hundred miles off the coast of Florida. This is the third rocket SpaceX has landed after a GTO mission, which subjects the rocket to extreme heat and speed when reentering the atmosphere. It's the sixth rocket overall that SpaceX has recovered, out of 11 attempts.

Interestingly, so far, the theory that reusing rockets will save money has not actually yet been put to the test. None of the six landed rockets have yet been reused in subsequent missions. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says that the company will launch a reused rocket sometime this fall, though details are still sketchy. Reusing rockets could mean a 30% reduction in cost for each launch, nothing to sneeze at in the expensive world of space exploration. If the mission this fall is successful, it will show that Musk's price-reduction scheme could really work.

Source: The Verge

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