Scalper1 News
Following the successful launch of of its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, SpaceX on Friday landed the first-stage booster rocket of its Falcon 9 on a floating barge a few miles off the coast of Florida, a feat never done before. Three previous attempts to stick the landing of its massive booster rocket on a floating barge on the Atlantic Ocean failed. The flawless launch of Falcon 9 occurred on schedule at 4:43 p.m. ET at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida. It’s the first time SpaceX is returning to the International Space Station to deliver cargo since its last cargo mission in June resulted in failure, when the second-stage booster exploded about 21 miles high, due to a part failure. Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) CEO Elon Musk founded SpaceX. It’s based in Hawthorne, Calif., where Musk also has a Tesla facility. In addition to running Tesla and SpaceX, Musk is chairman of SolarCity ( SCTY ). SpaceX did manage to land the booster rocket on Florida land during a launch in December. But the barge landing is far more difficult, and much more important, if SpaceX is able to reuse its rockets on a regular basis. Reusing rockets will enable SpaceX to lower the cost of its launches. The SpaceX Dragon capsule will carry nearly 7,000 pounds of cargo to the space station. Scalper1 News
Scalper1 News