SpaceX successfully launched its latest uncrewed cargo mission to the International Space Station on Saturday, and if you haven’t seen the video of its Falcon 9 first-stage rocket booster coming in for a landing yet, you need to now.
While perhaps not as technically impressive nor difficult as SpaceX’s previous rocket landings on drone ships out in the Atlantic Ocean, this landing is undeniably breathtaking to watch, filmed by a drone, which tracks the projectile as it smoothly descends back to Earth.
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And though it looks tiny and delicate in this view, the rocket is actually huge, as an older photo shows:
This was SpaceX’s first launch from the newly-refurbished Kennedy Space Center Complex 39A, previously the main launchpad for NASA’s Apollo program. This was the first commercial usage of this launching area so far. The Falcon 9 first-stage landed about 13 miles down the coast at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Landing Zone 1.
SpaceX will attempt to re-use one of its boosters for the first time as early as next month, according to Florida Today, an important milestone on the company’s quest to drastically reduce the cost of space travel.
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NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams. Photo courtesy NASA/Robert Markowitz. -
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