The company Space X has done what was once thought impossible by launching the same rocket into orbit twice
ADVERTISEMENTFor the first time in history the same orbital class rocket has been successfully launched twice.
Space X, a company whose stated aim is ultimately to ‘enable people to live on other planets’ has made a giant leap in driving down costs and speeding up the pace of space exploration. The company has now managed to recover 9 rockets in total, something seen as a pipe dream just a few years ago.
#SpaceX just changed the game for spaceflight, again pic.twitter.com/Xeb9zQD4OO
— Michael Chase (@chasethisnow) March 31, 2017
The company’s founder, Elon Musk explained the achievement with great excitement:
“It means you can fly and refly an orbit class booster which is the most expensive part of the rocket. This is going to be, ultimately a huge revolution in space flight. It is the difference between if you had airplanes, where you threw away an airplane after every flight versus you could reuse them multiple times.”
Onlookers at the Falcon 9 launch erupted into raucous cheers when it reportedly took-off, deposited a satellite into orbit and landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
For the company’s billionaire boss, this moment has been 15 years in the making. NASA congratulated Space X on its achievement.
Congrats
SpaceX</a> on another historic launch! Our iconic launch pads at <a href="https://twitter.com/NASAKennedy">NASAKennedy continue to support the growing commercial space economy https://t.co/bzNxI0lI7G— NASA (@NASA) March 30, 2017