Space X lands rocket at sea 2nd time after satellite launch

Published 10:27 am Friday, May 6, 2016

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — For the second month in a row, the aerospace upstart SpaceX landed a rocket on an ocean platform early Friday, this time following the successful launch of a Japanese communications satellite.

A live web broadcast showed the first-stage booster touching down vertically in the pre-dawn darkness atop a barge in the Atlantic, just off the Florida coast. The same thing occurred April 8 during a space station supply run for NASA. That was the first successful landing at sea for SpaceX, which expects to start reusing its unmanned Falcon rockets as early as this summer to save money and lower costs.

Because of the high altitude needed for this mission, SpaceX did not expect a successful landing. But it was wrong. As the launch commentator happily declared, “The Falcon has landed.”

Email newsletter signup

SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk was even more exuberant. “Woohoo!!” he exclaimed in bold letters via Twitter.

“May need to increase size of rocket storage hangar,” he added in a tweet.

Musk said this was a three-engine burn for the booster’s return, “so triple deceleration from the last flight.” Before liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, he put the chances of a successful touchdown at “maybe even” because the rocket was coming in faster and hotter than last time.

Musk contends rocket reusability is key to shaving launch costs and making space more accessible.

SpaceX is the only company to recover a rocket following an orbital launch. It achieved its first booster landing — on solid ground at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station — back in December. A landing at sea proved more elusive and required several tries.